War Diary of Clare Gass 9780773568860

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Ine War Diary of Clare Gass 1915-1918

1 he War Diary of Clare Gass 1915-1918

EDITED AND I N T R O D U C E D BY SUSAN MANN

McGill-Queen's University Press Montreal & Kingston • London • Ithaca

© McGill-Queen's University Press 2000 ISBN 0-7735-2126-7

Diary for the years 1915 and 1916 © Elizabeth Anderson 2000 Legal deposit third quarter 2000 Bibliotheque nationale du Quebec Printed in Canada on acid-free paper McGill-Queen's University Press acknowledges the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP) for its activities. It also acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts for its publishing program. Matron MacLatchy's recollections (Appendix 6) are published by permission of the editor, The Canadian Nurse. Nursing Sister Clint's recollections (Appendix 7) are published by permission of the Alumnae Association of the Royal Victoria Hospital Training School for Nurses. Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data Gass, Clare, 1887-1968 The war diary of Clare Gass (McGill-Queen's/Associated Medical Services (Hannah Institute) Studies in the History of Medicine ; 9 Includes bibliographical references ISBN 0-7735-2126-7 1. Gass, Clare, 1887-1968—Diaries. 2. World War, 1914—1918—Medical care—France. 3. World War, 1914—1918-Medical care—Canada. 4, Canada. Canadian Army. Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps—Biography. 5. Nurses—Canada—Diaries. 6. World War, 1914—1918— Personal narratives, Canadian. I. Mann, Susan II. Title. III. Series. D63O.G38A3 2000

940.4'7571'092

C00-900431-9

This book was designed by David LeBlanc and typeset in 10.3/13 New Baskerville

Co n t e n t s Abbreviations Acknowledgments Introduction

ix xi xx

THE WAR DIARY OF CLARE GASS

1915 1916 1917 1918

3 91 155 187

APPEN DICES

1 Clare Gass Chronology 2 Instructions for Canadian Army Medical Corps Nursing Service 3 Clare Gass's Overseas Correspondence 4 "To the Men of the CAMC" 5 List of Members of the Original Unit No. 3 Canadian General Hospital (McGill) 6 Matron MacLatchy's Recollections 7 Nursing Sister Mabel Clint's Recollections Notes Sources and further reading

213 215

225 231 233

243 249 259 299

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For Elizabeth Anderson Who introduced me to Aunt Clare

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ALL reviatioAbb reviations

ADMS ASC Batt CAMC CB cc ccs CMR CRT Can Capt Col DCM DDNS DSO MGH NB NCO NS oc PPCLI QAIMNS RAMC

Assistant Director Medical Services Army Service Corps Battalion Canadian Army Medical Corps Confined to Barracks Convalescent Camp Casualty Clearing Station Canadian Mounted Rifles Canadian Railway Troop Canadian Captain Colonel Distinguished Conduct Medal Deputy Director Medical Services Distinguished Service Order Montreal General Hospital New Brunswick Non-commissioned Officer Nova Scotia Officer Commanding Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service Royal Army Medical Corps

ABBREVIATIONS

RTO Railway Transport officer RVH Royal Victoria Hospital Reg Regiment

X

T

Editing Clare Gass's wartime diary has been a delight. From the first hint of the existence of such a document to the last footnote for this publication, I have been surrounded by people as intrigued as I with the topic. In order of appearance they are Pamela Miller of the Osier Library at McGill, Philip Cercone of McGill-Queen's University Press, and Elizabeth Anderson, Nova Scotian niece of Clare Gass and owner of the major portion of the diary. Those three were the ring-leaders of this project. Individually and collectively they provided encouragement, information, connections, surprises, and support. Through Elizabeth Anderson I was able to meet other Nova Scotian relatives of Clare Gass: nephew John Gass, who has his aunt's wartime photograph album; niece Geraldine Brenton, proprietor of the last two years of the diary and some correspondence; niece Trudy Henderson, who has her aunt's scrap-books and other memorabilia; niece Roslyn MacPhee, who has a prewar photograph album as well as the Gass-Miller family Bible; and cousin Marion Walsh, who shared some childhood letters of Clare Gass with me. In Ontario were two other nieces, Catherine Germa and Mary Brown and a family friend, Coreen Flemming. All of these people had memories and stories of a Clare Gass special to each of them in different ways. Their candour, good humour, and openness — family traits I suspect - were heartwarming and I thank them for permission to use their material in this book.

ACKNOWLEDOMENTS

Heart warming as well was the welcome I encountered in the many public institutions a historian frequents. At the National Archives, the National Library, the Canadian War Museum, la Bibliotheque nationale du Quebec, the Public Archives of Nova Scotia, and the Archives of the Canadian Nurses' Association, the staff was unfailingly generous with time and leads and knowledge. I have been fortunate, too, in my connection with four educational institutions. King's-Edgehill School in Windsor, Nova Scotia, through Linda Davison-Landymore, the director of Development and Alumni Affairs, provided documents of Clare Gass's early twentieth-century schooling. My home institution, York University, supported the post-presidential leave that gave me the time to renew my love of research and writing. And my temporary home at the McGill Centre for Research and Teaching on Women has the ideal conditions for a visiting scholar. Director Dr Shree Mulay and Administrator Blossom Shaffer have been enormously helpful. At McGill too, Desmond Morton happily shared his encyclopedic knowledge of military history while Johanne Pelletier opened obscure and fruitful corners of the university archives. I am glad to be able to repay McGill's hospitality with a book that adds to the history of the university and, I hope, to the lustre of McGill-Queen's University Press. At the Press, Aurele Parisien's legal-diplomatic skills guarded the manuscript from many a pitfall. Joan McGilvray guided the manuscript with great interest and a sharp pencil through the multiple post-writing and pre-publication stages. During those stages I had the opportunity to develop a new course on women in the First World War for the Institute of Women's Studies at the University of Ottawa. One paragraph in particular of the introduction reflects that experience. Finally, gratitude for domestic hospitality and intellectual stimulation during research trips is owing to Margaret Conrad in Halifax and Britt-Mari and Kimball Sykes in Ottawa. Indeed some of the introduction to the Gass Diary was written while we all awaited the arrival of Susan Hannah Sykes, my grand-daughter.

Xll

introduction

c

cLARE GASS WENT TO WAR AS A PATRIOTIC CALARE GASS WENT TO WAR AS A PATRIOTIC CANADIAN,

a dutiful daughter, a devout Anglican, a loving sister, a dear friend, an adventurer, a romantic, — and a nurse. Indeed, only as a nurse could she, a woman, go to war at all. Two thousand other women preceded, accompanied, or followed her overseas between 1914 and 1918, nursing sisters with the rank of lieutenant in the Canadian Army Medical Corps (CAMC). A varying number, between four hundred and eight hundred - Clare Gass among them - saw service in France, and an even smaller number - Gass there too - served close to the line of fire. All expected to be home soon, and home alive. The war belied the first expectation: in Clare Gass' case her time in Europe stretched to almost four years. The second expectation she and most of her colleagues did achieve. Thirty-nine did not. The experience of the military nurses and the aura surrounding them contributed in large part to the quadrupling of the number of nurses in Canada between 1911 and 1921.l Nothing in Clare Gass's background or upbringing suggested a career at all, much less one in military nursing. Born in Nova Scotia in 1887 to small-town, middle-class parents of Scottish origin, Clare was the oldest living child and only girl in a family of ten, three of whom did not survive infancy or childhood. Her father, Robert, owned a general store and lumber mill in Shubenacadie; her mother, Nerissa, came from the Miller brickmaking family just across the river. Clare and her father were kindred spirits - quiet,

INTRODUCTION

Clare Gass age seven

dreamy, poetic - and they doted on each other. Her mother was more practical, forthright, a force to be reckoned with in the household. The later diary-keeping nurse is clearly a daughter of both. The only hint of a future diarist, however, are Clare's childhood letters to vast numbers of relatives, letters full of fun and mischief and misspellings. Clare retained all of these characteristics in later years. She was a reader from a young age and had free rein in her father's extensive library (except for Rabelais). Might she have encountered there, or at school, Florence Nightingale and the origins of military nursing in the Crimea in the mid-nineteenth century? Although she lived at a time when thousands of young Nova Scotian girls were moving about, to the cities, to the "Boston states," for jobs in servXIV

INTRODUCTION

ice, in industry, even in nursing, Clare's future was probably more circumscribed due to her parents' position: an only Gass daughter ought not to work and should marry. Her future would then look much like her mother's life: a large, noisy household, presence in the community, and pregnancies every two years for almost twenty years. Did she wonder about that? We simply do not know. All we know is that she eventually did work and that she never married.2 Part of solidifying a family's middle-class status in the late nineteenth century was providing prestigious schooling for daughters. As Clare reached adolescence and outgrew the local school, her parents chose Edgehill, a private Church of England school for girls in Windsor, Nova Scotia, for her secondary schooling. In 1901, when she went as a boarder, Edgehill was only ten years old but was already

Gass family, Shubenacadie, late nineteenth century. Clare is centre front.

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attracting the daughters of prominent families from Quebec City, Montreal and Ottawa, Bermuda, and the United States. If part of the parental concern was the effect of so many rowdy brothers on a young girl, they could not have chosen better. Four years in the company of ninety other girls spread across the six "forms" of a school consciously modelled on "the leading English schools for girls" provided a superb education and all the feminine proprieties of the upper middle-class. By 1905 Clare knew scripture and history, literature and languages, geography, mathematics, and natural science. She could draw and recite, play the piano, and appreciate art and music. She won a prize for needlework, a bronze medal for proficiency, and completed her studies First Class with distinction in four subjects in the "associate in arts" (Senior Matriculation) examination at King's College, also in Windsor at that time. Like her counterparts elsewhere in the English-speaking world, she was an accomplished and disciplined young woman. Had she been a boy in England, such a background would have taken her straight into the army as a junior officer. As a girl, in Canada, marriage remained the more likely option. Inadvertently, Edgehill provided Clare Gass with more scope. In the all-female teaching staff Clare encountered single career women. Almost all of them had "Higher Certificates" from Cambridge, a concession to women's post-secondary education at a time when the university did not grant degrees to women, and one had a licentiate from the Royal Academy of Music. Two of the teachers remained linked to Clare for years, long after they had all left Edgehill. One, Miss Lefroy, shows up in her diary. While at school, Clare followed a school routine that made her eventual choice of nursing and then of the military that much easier. Through the pattern of the school day, with its "rising bell" at 7 A.M. to "lights out" at 9.15 P.M., the girls were acquiring orderly, accepted discipline. Ten years later reveille and last post would not be much different. Besides the highly structured academic program, the girls also had sports and games under the direction of a teacher certified, among other things, in "Military Drill." Through it all, strict obedience to the "Lady Principal" was merely iniXVI

INTRODUCTION

Clare Gass, Edgehill schoolgirl

tiation for the same requirement by the "Lady Superintendent" at nursing school and then by the matron and commanding officer in the military. 3 The reasons behind her decision to go into nursing remain obscure. Three years elapsed between the end of her schooling at Edgehill in 1905 and her going to Montreal. During that time she was at home, perhaps awaiting the suitor expected for such young women and most likely assisting her mother with the younger children. Two more had joined the family while she was at Edgehill. Clare was allowed to name the first as recompense for his not being the sister she longed for and chose the name Athelstan. The second necessitated her being summoned home from school in 1904 when the birth of this last brother threatened to take the lives of both XV11

INTRODUCTION

mother and child. And two years later her twelve year-old brother John died. So she was surrounded by birth and death and people needing care. Moreover, not until she was twenty-one, early in 1908, was she old enough for nursing school. Once she decided to go into nursing, she had to choose among American training schools and any one of the seventy Canadian schools - all at that time attached to hospitals. The more obvious choices were Halifax's Victoria General Hospital, with its waiting list of up to two years, and the two big English-language city hospitals in Montreal.4 The latter drew their nursing students from all across the country, women ranging in age from twenty-one to thirty-eight. Most, like Clare, marked "Nil" under the heading "Vocation" on their application, but a fair number declared themselves as accountants, governesses, or clerks. In short, middle-class women wanting or needing a profession, one which, by then, was both respectable and recognized. Perhaps following a family reminder of distant, unmet cousins in Montreal, Clare Gass shows up in January 1909 among the incoming student nurses at the Montreal General Hospital (MGH) .5 There followed three years of all-female residential life and a regimen of work, discipline, and obedience that would have won the admiration of any militia officer. Along with the other students, Clare offered her services to the hospital in return for board, instruction, and a small monthly stipend. "On pain of expulsion" she promised to have no personal dealings with any of the (male) medical staff and students. The same fate awaited her should she fail the 'Junior exam" or injure a patient. Before completing her training she had to work without pay for three months for the Montreal Maternity Hospital, an obligation she fulfilled in the late winter and early spring of 1912.6 Apart from illness (scarlet fever in 1909 and the removal of a neck gland in 1910, the scar of which is recorded on her military attestation papers), she spent three years rotating among the wards of the hospital, learning by doing. Photographs of these hospital wards show that they were remarkably similar to the later military hospital wards, as was the use of alphabetical letters to name wards. Through surgical, medical, and children's wards, in the XV111

INTRODUCTION

operating room, the diet kitchen, or the maternity hospital, Clare perfected the nurse's particular combination of skill, authority, and deference.7 Both her character and her competence were part of the School's assessment of her: the competence summarized as "practical work," the character as "efficiency."8 Through it all she had just enough time off to meet the Montreal Gass relatives and to take a particular liking to her second cousin Laurence, a young engineering student at McGill. He is the "Laurie" of her diary. By June 1912, with her "time expired," she was ready to earn her living - like most other graduate nurses of the time - in private duty nursing or, should the need arise, in military nursing. Few people foresaw that need in the summer of 1912. Indeed, Canada's permanent military force, tiny in itself, had only five nurses.9 Some of them were veterans of the South African War (1899-1902), when twelve Canadian nurses had gone overseas. One of them, Margaret Macdonald, was subsequently matron-inchief of Canada's military nurses during the First World War. As a lieutenant in the Permanent Army Medical Corps as of 1906, Macdonald instigated some personnel planning, but even she could not predict the need for, nor interest in, military nursing.10 When it developed, in the late summer of 1914 and throughout the four years of war, with military nurses at home and abroad numbering just over 3,000, there were always more applicants than places. In a limited job market, and with graduate nurses increasing in number, the war offered an unusual opportunity. Nurses had to be British subjects (as all Canadians were at the time) and single (some widows do appear - Mrs Austin and Mrs Giffin of the diary), in good health, graduates of a recognized school of nursing, and between twentyone to thirty-eight years of age,11 with the graduate requirement effectively ensuring that the nurses were at least twenty-four. Competition for the initial jobs in 1914 involved old-fashioned political favouritism, new-fangled professional lobbying through the Canadian National Association of Trained Nurses,12 and the young women themselves pleading with hospital authorities to speed up their final examinations so they could enlist, now.13 XIX

INTRODUCTION

Clare Gass's enlistment involved a more circuitous route, via McGill University rather than directly to the Ministry of Militia and Defence. By 1915 she was almost twenty-eight, an experienced nurse with the maturity and stamina required of army nurses. In her decision to enlist, she was likely encouraged by her recruiting officer father and the example of two of her brothers, Gerald and Cyril, who had already enlisted (two more, Blanchard and Athelstan, would follow) and just perhaps by a sense that her family would disapprove of what may have been a budding romance with cousin Laurence. Whatever the motivation - and pay, friends, travel, adventure, and the call of the British Empire would also have played their part - she became one of the original members of the McGill University hospital overseas, known formally as No. 3 Canadian General Hospital (McGill). The first such entity in the imperial war effort, the hospital was the dream of the dean of Medicine at McGill, Dr H.S. Birkett, who happened also to be a colonel in the Canadian militia. He persuaded Sir William Peterson, McGill's principal, and Sam Hughes, the Canadian minister of the Militia, of the benefits of a university-based hospital. It would have the best surgeons, drawn from McGill's faculty, the best technology, and the best nurses, chosen equally from the graduates of the two major teaching hospitals in Montreal, the General and the Royal Victoria. Male medical students would even ensure that it had the best orderlies. Moreover, McGill's status and alumni would ensure private support for the hospital. It took Birkett many months to convince both Canadian and British authorities of his plan; to persuade the British he called upon McGill's distinguished graduate and former professor, then at Oxford, Sir William Osier. By the spring of 1915 he had succeeded and the unit set sail for Britain early in May. By August the hospital, under canvas at Camiers on the north eastern coast of France, was ready to receive its first patients. Early in 1916 it moved to more substantial quarters on a hill above Boulogne, where it remained until May 1919. Both locations were about forty miles behind the front lines in Flanders. As commanding officer during most of the period, Colonel Birkett continued his public relations campaign for the XX

INTRODUCTION

hospital. He insisted it remain as a single unit and not be broken up to reinforce the numerous British hospitals nearby. He demanded that only McGill doctors and medical students come as reinforcements. And he made sure the hospital's successes were known. Eventually Canada produced eight such university-based hospitals - four of the six General Hospitals and four of the six Stationary Hospitals. By all accounts, its own included, McGill was one of the best.14 The war diary of Clare Gass begins with her month of military training in Quebec City in March 1915. The common background of the nurses - Clare's training overlapped with that of twenty-six of the thirty-six MGH graduates - explains both the easy camaraderie of the women and the occasional difficulty. They were among friends. They were also returning to the residential, uniformed, disciplined, hierarchical life of school and hospital.15 The additional training in Quebec was more military than medical, as the nurses absorbed the etiquette, law, and administration of their new employer,16 to whom they had contracted their services for the duration of the war. At $2 a day (plus "field" and "messing" and travel allowance when overseas) they were receiving better pay than private duty nurses17 and were embarking on an unusual adventure for women. They intended to make the most of it. Whether they were in tents, huts, or billets, doing month-long night duty as the convoys of wounded came in, or shielding their patients from bombardments, the nurses displayed a female version of esprit-de-corps. Friendship, humour, escapades - whether in work or play the nurses combined seriousness of purpose with sheer delight. These women enjoyed each other's company and they loved their work, "if it were only possible," added Clare, "to forget its cause."18 But the cause for which the war was being fought, interpreted by political, military, and religious leaders of the time as the defence of civilization, righteousness, and justice, they neither forgot nor questioned. Indeed, that cause gave their work a higher moral purpose, one involving religion, morality, and the family. With brothers and cousins in the fighting ranks, this war was a family affair, the ties of empire and religion as strong as those between siblings. XXI

INTRODUCTION

The presence of the nurses themselves added to the moral force of the war. That women would be willing to leave their homes to share at least part of the agony of warfare emphasized both the worthiness of the cause and the appropriateness of contemporary male-female divisions of labour. Even the original justification of the war - the defence of small, helpless Belgium against strong, brutal Germany had overtones of gender. Those overtones continued throughout the war. Young men were encouraged to enlist to protect their women and children from the outrages purportedly inflicted upon the women and children of territory overrun by the Germans. A drowning nurse figured prominently in the on-going campaign to present Germany as a monster. Even the financial purpose of Victory Bonds - that the Canadian public pay its own war costs - was camouflaged as the provision of security for women. As for bad women - those preying prostitutes of England corrupting young Canadian soldiers - their existence merely accentuated the moral superiority of "good women." Nurses were the only good women anywhere near active duty soldiers; they thus had a substantial image and reality to uphold.19 In their military work, the nurses maintained very strict femalemale distinctions. The symbolism of language and dress is the most revealing but so too is the myriad of detail in the Gass diary about expected and cheerily undertaken female behaviour. The nurses were "Sisters" with all the familial and religious connotations of the title. They were swathed in garments that combined a matron's light blue housedress with a schoolgirl's collar and cuffs, a child's white pinafore (or a servant's apron), and the hair-covering white veil of a nun. Thus garbed, they tended to "lads" and "boys," words that turned the young soldiers (often considerably younger than the nurses) into brothers or children. To add to the distancing, the nurses had a dress uniform of brass-buttoned dark blue, complete with hat and great-coat, boots, and gloves, the whole outfit so distinctive and unusual as to have Londoners wondering who these women were. Policewomen? Suffragettes? In any case, formidable.20 To the mix, the army added the rank of lieutenant, complete with stars on the shoulder strap of the nurses' uniform. The rank placed XX11

(McGill University Libraries, Rare Books and Special Collections)

INTRODUCTION

the nurses squarely in an hierarchy of command (albeit limited to the hospital): they owed deference to the captains, majors, colonels, and generals above them and deference was their due from the noncommissioned officers and privates below them. They took orders from their seniors and gave orders to their subordinates. Men of all ranks seemed to find this latter puzzling: women exercising authority outside the household or the schoolroom was a novelty, and it appeared even stranger if, as often happened in the hospital, the orders given were to perform household tasks. One of the doctors at the McGill hospital observed that some of the nurses were rather "picayune" in commanding male medical students - mere sergeants - to do the sweeping.21 For the nurses it must in fact have been a bit of a lark. But it clearly did not always work. In 1917 and again in 1918 senior military personnel had to reiterate that the nurses had authority and were due the obedience and respect of their rank.22 Everyone was more comfortable with traditional roles. If military nursing allowed women to exercise some unusual authority as well as to spread their professional wings in distant settings, army life also ensured the maintenance of rigid nineteenth-century lines of separate female and male spheres of activity and propriety. The nurses themselves took for granted their segregated and familial functions within the army hospital structure. In their sharply demarcated living quarters, they expressed indignation if any males intruded. And they expected male protection from any undue advances. In their "lines," which included a "Mess" tent for eating and an "Ante-tent" for socializing, they revealed the portability and durability of women's culture. They decorated and embellished, they planted gardens, and, when wind and cold got the better of them, they also hammered and repaired. They organized parties and entertainments for their patients, themselves, the officers, and the men. They held afternoon teas and "at homes" to which the male officers of the McGill unit and the many other nearby hospitals were invited. Often one of the men would play the piano. Under the matron's beaming and watchful eye — she seems to have been a combination of administrator, hostess, and chaperone — mutual admiration held sway. XXIV

INTRODUCTION

More formal occasions were equally stylized. The many highranking visitors to the McGill hospital took tea with the matron and nurses, then dined with the male officers in their separate mess. One Hallowe'en, referred to in the Gass diary, the sisters proposed a masquerade for the men, much to the commanding officer's consternation. With their fellow officers, it might be acceptable, but with the men? Surely a breach of military etiquette. The nurses deferred and then the colonel relented. Once the lines of military etiquette were crossed, the masquerade itself allowed the indulgence of numerous displays of cross-dressing. But it all just proved the rule. At Christmas the sisters outdid themselves with ward decoration, stocking stuffing, serving dinner to the "other ranks" (the men below them), and then dining and dancing - dress uniforms de rigueur - with the male officers, complete with a receiving line of colonels and, once again, the matron.23 The dancing raised an eyebrow or two but not among the Canadians. It seems that English nurses, organized in a unit quite separate from the British army - Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service (QAIMNS) - were forbidden the easy association with brother officers that the Canadians enjoyed. The dancing therefore added to the rivalry occasionally discernible between the Canadian and English nurses. A nurses' dance at the McGill hospital to mark Dominion Day, for example, could draw officers from near and far. There is a hint of disapproval, perhaps reflecting some jealousy in the ranks, in a report of the British matron-in-chief: "Members of the C.A.M.C. are permitted by their regulations to dance with officers in their own messes," she remarked archly, glad of a thorough discussion of the topic at a conference of overseas matrons-in-chief in late 1917. The Canadian representative, Matron Margaret Macdonald, was forthright: "dancing [was] a necessary and very legitimate exercise ... nurses who were surrounded with an atmosphere of depression needed the recreation both mentally and physically. "24 On the nurses' part, some of the strict adherence to gender roles may have been camouflage. In the CAMC the nurses were finding valued, satisfying, and demanding work, work that they accomplished XXV

INTRODUCTION

with energy and enthusiasm. Moreover, the army allowed them to concentrate on that work by tending to all their other requirements. Lodging, food, laundry, health care, entertainment, transportation, vacations and travel, freindships, even servants in the form of "batmen" and "home sisters," were all provided as part of the nurses' contract — and opportunity - to work. There was nothing like it at home, either in private duty nursing or in the household. No wonder they loved their work. But perhaps no wonder too that they spoke so little of it. For the nurses were breaking a middle-class gender code that cast them, as women, in the role of supporting actor to someone else's work. While that is one way of seeing nursing itself in relation to the medical profession, it belittles the actual work of the nurses and ignores the propitious circumstances of that work in the army. The fact that so many of the nurses remained single after the war suggests that at some level they knew what was happening. They may simply have chosen to hide that knowledge in the roleplaying of gender. The semblance of normality provided by adherence to gender roles of family and class occurred in the midst of the worst human carnage the world had seen. Perhaps it was necessary to surviving a war whose only sure winner was technology. Even Clare Gass's spelling, awkward and inconsistent as it is, reflects the novelty of shrapnel, gas masks, machine guns, anti-aircraft guns, airplanes themselves, dirigibles, torpedoes, bombs, shells, even trucks and cars. Curiously she mentions neither of the nineteenth-century's standard soldier's equipment of rifle and bayonet nor the bumbling beginnings of the tank. What she sees all too clearly is the effect of these inventions on human flesh. She knows her physiology and the proper medical term for gas gangrene but before going to Europe she would never have encountered its appearance or its stench. Long before the war touched her own kin, she had seen how it shattered limbs and innards and minds. The wounds appal her; they pierce the normal gentility of diary-keeping, they numb and eventually silence her. Neither her training nor her gender allowed her to share the scientific interest of her medical colleagues (on one occaXXVI

INTRODUCTION

sion indeed, the nurses served the refreshments before the doctors read their research papers to the Boulogne Base Medical Society). At the same time her nursing practice was facilitated by technological improvements in health care. Keeping pace with weaponry were X-rays, blood transfusions, and bone splints.25 Before a wounded soldier could profit from any of the medical inventions or skilled care, he had to run an obstacle course designed to have him repaired in the shortest possible time. From no-man's land, between the opposing lines of trenches, he would hobble, if able, to the first aid post in his own line, hoping that the line was still there. If unable to get there on his own, he would await the cover of darkness and the chance of stretcher bearers locating him. With luck they might get him to a field ambulance or advanced dressing

Horse ambulance collecting wounded at advanced dressing station, 1916 (National Archives of Canada [NA] PA 680) XXV11

Stretcher cases arriving at No. 3 CGH, Boulogne (Pirie, No.3 Canadian General Hospital)

station in time for preliminary assistance. From there, a vehicle, horse-drawn or motorized, would take him over impossible roads to the nearest Casualty Clearing Station (ccs), usually three or four miles behind the front. Depending on a medical officer's judgment, and the period of the war, he might be operated on then and there and kept under nursing surveillance until he could be moved further back "down the line" that he had come "up" on his way to the front. Or he might die there and never get any farther. The nature of the wound or the repair could also send him straight on through, often by ambulance train this time, to a larger and more fully equipped hospital - a two-hundred-and-fifty-bed Stationary Hospital or a five-hundred tofifteen-hundred-bedGeneral Hospital - far enough back to permit him to sleep in peace. Subject still to decisions about how soon he could make the reverse journey back to the front, he could stay in such a hospital as a surgical or medical case from a few days to a few months. He would then move on to a convalescent camp before returning to his unit or to a longer-stay XXV111

INTRODUCTION

hospital in England. A good word in his favour (Clare Gass records one such occasion) might get him to England faster, as would the imminence of a major battle that required emptying the hospitals before the next wave of wounded. Even in England, there were still decisions about reparability, except in cases of amputation or blindness: either condition would send him home, if Canada-bound, aboard a hospital ship.26 Except for the very first stages of his journey down the line, nurses accompanied him all the way. They were originally never intended to be so close to the front, but as of 1915 ten or twelve nurses were at each Casualty Clearing Station. At least two were on the ambulance train. Sixteen awaited him at a Stationary Hospital and as many as seventy-two at a General Hospital. In all units numbers expanded with the need: a wounded soldier in 1918 might find as many as one hundred and forty nurses at the McGill hospital. Nurses were on the hospital ships from Boulogne to England and again from England to Canada. Here, too, they were not intended to be in danger, but in fact a torpedoed hospital ship caused the greatest single number of Canada's nursing dead. Fourteen nursing sisters, all in the same lifeboat, went down with the Llandovery Castle as it returned from a trip to Canada in June 1918. Clare Gass records this too.27 To repair the wounded, nurse the sick, and ease the dying, nurses performed a multitude of tasks. All the ward preparation was theirs, from making and equipping beds to obtaining stores from the central supply, stocking the tiny ward kitchen, and arranging space for the charge nurse to make her reports. The nurses prepared all the dressings, pads of clean cotton gauze, in advance, enough, literally, for an army. Most of the actual changing of dressings - the replacement of blood-soaked, pus-laden bandages, the washing of the wound with a sterile (and stinging) solution, and its covering up again with a clean dressing fell to the nurses.28 So too did the feeding of soldiers too weak or incapacitated to feed themselves. The nurses checked pulses and temperatures, brought down fevers, stopped haemorrhages, and watched for the ever-lurking gangrene. They tended to the aftermath of operations, occasionally participating in XXIX

INTRODUCTION

the operation itself as surgical nurse or anaesthetist (this latter a Canadian premiere) .Z9 And they carried out the "the small attentions to patients" - a smile, a word, a pat, a cigarette, a query, a chat, a treat from the town pastry shop - that sustained everyone's spirits, both the patients' and their own.3° The nurses brought lads back from the brink of madness and accompanied them to the edge of death. When the latter took over, the nurses conveyed the soldier's final state and last wishes to his family. The nurses did all this, year after year, day and night, the rhythm of their work regulated by the ebb and flow of blood from battle. They treated patients from England, Scotland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, even Portugal - more than 140,000 over the life of the McGill hospital - whoever was sent to them sick or

Operating room nurses (Pirie, No. j Canadian General Hospital}

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wounded down the British "lines of communication" from camp or trench or battlefield. Although Clare Gass mentions many of those battlefields, her interest and that of other nurses seemed to be more the country of origin and the name or number of a soldier's unit (for possible connections with relatives and friends) than the battle that marked his wound and appeared in history books. The nurses cared for these soldiers in tents and huts, where heat, lighting, and water could be less constant than they. They waded through the mud, rain, and wind of north-eastern France with chilblains and backache from the low-slung hospital cots and even lower stretchers that filled available floor space after a major battle. According to one account, the physical labour required of Canadian nursing sisters was greater than that of their English counterparts whose trained (male) orderlies took on more of the routine care. But the Canadians had male assistance too, privates (and the occasional sergeant) acting as ward masters, orderlies or general duty providers. Privates Lapp and Valentine are examples from the Gass diary. In the McGill hospital, most of the male assistants were medical students and Clare despaired of them initially. But in fact their task was to do things considered not quite proper for women to undertake: washing the "dirty, bloody, lousy boys" who came in from the trenches, sending "their grimy uniforms for disinfection," and presumably - although no one mentions this fetching and carrying bed-pans. As the war went on and medical students returned to their studies in Canada or transferred to fighting units, recuperating patients often took on some of the ward duties. One of Clare's favourites was the English lad "Blanch" and she may well have prolonged his life by having work for him to do in her ward. In fact there were never enough people to do the work.31 With all the military activities requiring careful organization, time seems to have been crucial. The nurses' time was carefully structured. If, on occasion, they had to do double duty, they were seldom run ragged. A normal day shift had "hours off," enough time for a bicycle sprint into town or a walk in the neighbouring countryside. A half-day, or the more occasional entire day, off allowed for longer ventures, dedicated sight-seeing (these nurses were travellers along XXXI

INTRODUCTION

Office of Matron-in-Chief MacDonald, London (NA, PA 680)

with everything else) in surrounding towns and villages, picnics in valleys and on hillsides, lunch in a cafe. Every three months or so a stint of night duty of about four weeks duration - the interval and length shorter at a Clearing Station - required adjusting personal time to hospital time. Clare Gass never did get used to sleeping during the day; she always marked the early morning transition with a sea bathe, a walk, or a bicycle ride. Because there were so few nurses on night duty, the breaks were fewer, but on a quiet night a nurse could slip away to her "lines" for a few moments. About every six months, a nurse could apply for leave, a ten-day to two-week permission to be away from the hospital, almost always to go to England. Along every step of these activities, the army kept track of its nursing personnel. Rarely did a nurse go anywhere alone; permission slips littered her path and when in London she had to report in to the office of the matron-in-chief. To carry out all this supervision the matron or assistant matron in a unit could count on the nurses' own XXX11

INTRODUCTION

upbringing and training. These disciplined women knew how to behave. This gave the matron a slight advantage over other army officers in their similar supervision of citizen soldiers, a rather more recalcitrant group. For the nurses, however, the army accepted a gendered obligation: protection was due its female members. This entailed not allowing them into the fighting zone, leaving guards should they be alone in camp, and watching out for any moral danger that might befall them. The commanding officer of the McGill unit was particularly adamant about the latter danger. During a change of hospital sites Colonel Birkett did not want his nurses billetted in Boulogne for fear of urban influences on discipline and morale.32 In return for this moral and physical protection, the army expected speedy and efficient repair of its soldiers. In Birkett's mind, protection of the women and repair of the men probably went together. Indeed, everyone, the nurses included, thought that women had a special touch in healing and that that special touch required harbouring. More likely, what was being papered over with gender and justified by war was the difference between military time and motherly time. Military time organized the soldiers into automatons; motherly time remembered the person. Military time took soldiers "over the top" with a second's precision; motherly time listened for the resulting horror story. And if a soldier's ailment was ultimately an overdose of military time, his repair was a hefty infusion of motherly time. Even before they came into a nurse's presence, the soldiers recognized this when they disobeyed orders and broke ranks to tend to their fallen comrades. All the more, then, should they make it to hospital, did they expect and cherish the attention, the sensitivity, the very presence of the nurses. "You're doing the very best work of the war," Victor Lapp wrote to Clare Gass after he left the McGill unit. She returned the compliment and confirmed the gendered notion of it in a poem of praise she wrote in 1917 "To the Men of the CAMC": they had abandoned "the glamour of musket and sword" that was their due as men in order to take up "secrets supposedly women's" of comfort and healing. In fact, the nurses' task was to combine, in a military setting, their scientific knowledge, professional training, and XXX111

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those characteristics assumed to be theirs by nature. By all accounts they succeeded in their task. A formal acknowledgment in the official record of No.3 Canadian General Hospital (McGill) states: 'They have been indefatigable in their efforts to make the wounded as comfortable as possible during their stay in Hospital, and their skill has been of the highest order." A more effusive matron delivered the same message: "In the opinion of Surgeons and those best qualified to judge no male nurse or orderly can take the place of a trained woman. Besides exercising the technical knowledge of her profession she exerts a wholesome and uplifting influence on the soldier and her ministrations help to give him confidence - the assurance that he is being brought back to the normal conditions of life. "33 Clare Gass returned from war, her values and person intact. Like many women's travel diaries, hers ends abruptly with her arrival in Halifax in December 1918. In fact she spent another year in the army before general demobilization late in 1919. During that year she did "transport duty," accompanying wounded soldiers across the Atlantic and across Canada, with her last posting at the military hospital at Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue. Along with the army she discarded the one thing that had allowed her, as a woman, to go to war at all: her nursing profession. Perhaps private duty nursing was too tame after her war experience; certainly the field was becoming overcrowded and therefore increasingly underpaid. It seems also that former military nurses did not make an easy transition to the few executive jobs available for trained nurses in civilian hospitals. Whether Clare Gass considered either of these options is unknown. But the rapidity with which she turned to social work - a budding new profession for women - suggests that she had had enough of repairing maimed bodies. The war may in fact have given her a wider social context for considering health and transport duty may have given her the time to reflect upon the social integration of disabled soldiers.34 Certainly social work could represent one more adventure for someone who combined a strong sense of responsibility with enthusiasm for anything new. It also meant a decisive break with the contemporary feminine ideal of marriage and motherhood, an ideal XXXIV

INTRODUCTION

frayed, of course, by the dearth of men but also perhaps by the experience of overseas military nursing itself. Whatever the impetus, she was among the first to take classes at McGill's newly formed School of Social Work in 1920 and she subsequently studied medical social work at Simmons College in Boston. As a pioneer of medical social work in Montreal she headed the Department of Social Work at the Western Division of the Montreal General Hospital and was active in the Canadian forerunner of the American Association of Medical Social Workers.35 With a great capacity for fun and friendship, she gathered around her other single professional women, in Montreal and elsewhere; they visited her in the city and joined her for summer vacations in Nova Scotia. There, from a cabin on Martinique Beach, they impressed, entertained, and educated Clare's many nieces and nephews. Over many a summer Aunt Clare would organize her young relatives into treasure hunts, "toothbrush brigades," painting contests, plays, readings aloud of books of her choosing, and regular outdoor Sunday church services in which she would play the minister. The children reciprocated her fondness for them, treated her with the respect that both she and her brothers (their fathers) demanded of them, surmised that she was somehow special and knew it when she beat one of them at poker. Only once did she return to France, a commemorative trip in 1923 aboard the same ship sailing on the same day as it had in 1915. Among her effects on her death in 1968 was a memento of that trip: a tiny box marked "Forget-menots from Vimy Ridge." They had turned to dust. During all that time Clare had tucked her diary away, close enough to slip in loose press clippings and poems and drawings but far enough away to keep the experience distant, from herself and her relatives. According to those relatives, Clare seldom spoke about the war. She could not be enticed to tell war stories. Nor did she ever keep another diary. Like most other nurses, and many soldiers too, silence seemed the appropriate balm. This silence helps explain why we do not yet have a history of Canada's First World War nursing sisters. The silence affected the first XXXV

INTRODUCTION

attempt at such a history shortly after the war; Matron-in-Chief Margaret Macdonald spent a few years before her retirement from the Department of Militia and Defence in 1923 trying to put together an official history of the Nursing Services. In part she ran into the same overwhelming task that kept even the first volume of Canada's official history of the war from appearing before 1938. When a history of the medical services appeared in 1925, its author, Andrew Macphail, skimmed over the nursing contribution, perhaps on the assumption that the Macdonald project would fill in the gaps in his account. But Macdonald was unable to break the nurses' silence. Her plan had been to have different aspects of the history written by different people and she solicited information and memories from all nursing sisters. The response was minimal and the few sketchy results form the tiny collection of her papers at the National Archives. One contribution, by Clare Gass's matron at No. 3, which found its way into print in The Canadian Nurse, is included here as Appendix 6. The Historical Section of the Defence Ministry tried to continue the project, but it too ran up against the silence. Even by limiting the range of contacts to senior nurses, those who had been matrons or had achieved military recognition (notably the Royal Red Cross) or had had unusually varied war-time experience, section head Colonel Duguid was no more successful than Matron Macdonald. His appeal to patriotism fell on deaf ears or raised a hoot of laughter. When he quoted the official purpose of the history - that it "be read by every Canadian girl before leaving high school" in order to "bring out the characteristics of devotion and fearlessness as exemplified by Canadian nurses" - his correspondent, a personal friend and former military nurse, pleaded "On behalf of the present day school girl may I make so bold as to say 'Have a Heart.'" It seems that few others bothered to reply at all and the history never happened.36 And yet, all of Canada's military nurses wrote letters home and most of them seem to have kept diaries. Few of these documents have reached public archives, much less publication. The National Archives of Canada has a minuscule collection of the papers (small in themselves) of six CAMC nurses. The National War Museum has XXXVI

INTRODUCTION

mementos of a few nurses, including those of the first Canadian nurse to be killed in the bombing of a hospital, but only one diary, that of a volunteer ambulance driver. The Canadian Nurses' Association has one diary, that of American Alice Isaacson who served with Canadian hospitals overseas. Like much of women's history, the nurses' personal records seem to have succumbed to public indifference, family protectiveness, and the nurses' own reticence. That same reticence affected the nurses' publication of their stories. Towards the end of the war, Constance Bruce produced an illustrated, light-hearted account designed to show the adventure and good humour of the nurses. In the 1930s Mabel Clint penned Our Bit, a more serious and patriotic memoir that reveals something of the bitterness of a nurse financially strapped after the war. Clint spent a few months of 1918 at No. 3 during the bombardment of the Boulogne area that summer and her outsider's view of the McGill unit is included as Appendix 7. Some letters of Muriel Grace Galt, a Canadian nurse serving with the British nursing reserve, are buried in a collection of Letters from Armageddon published by her sister Amy Gordon Grant in 1930. Until the 1980s, when Katherine Wilson-Simmie published her recollections in a thoughtful memoir, Lights Out, those were the only published first-person accounts in book form. An oral history project of the University of Toronto's School of Nursing, begun in 1977, tracked down a number of aging nurse veterans in Toronto but never did anything formal with the interviews. The transcripts, of uneven quality, are in the archives of the Canadian Nurses' Association. They reveal the project's equal emphasis on the nurses' family background, nursing training, military service and subsequent career. Their military nursing is therefore only a fragment of their recollections. One of those veterans, Maude Wilkinson, did publish a brief memoir in The Canadian Nurse in 1977. The first diary to appear in print, Ella Mae Bongard's Nobody Ever Wins a War in 1997, is that of a Canadian nurse who served with the American Nursing Service; her diary therefore only begins in August 1917. Secondary sources are equally slim. The history of the hospital itself, Fetherstonhaugh's No. 3 Canadian General Hospital (McGill) XXXV11

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1974—1919, produced in 1928, is a celebratory project of and for McGill University. All its information is taken from the official War Diary of the unit and the focus is squarely on the McGill men and their medical and scientific achievements. The nurses are of minor interest. Just after the Second World War, when 4,400 Canadian military nurses displayed Colonel Duguid's "devotion and fearlessness," the subject finally caught a historian's eye. But, just like the commemorative tableau erected in 1926 near the entrance to the Parliamentary Library in Ottawa, John Gibbon's overview covers three centuries of Canadian nursing; only one chapter is devoted to the First World War. Almost thirty years later, historians were still silent and the Canadian Nurses' Association had to commission military historian Gerald Nicholson to write a more modern study. He too surveys all of Canadian history and the military nurses of the First War occupy only three chapters of Canada's Nursing Sisters. Twenty years on and much feminist scholarship later, Kathryn McPherson's brilliant Bedside Matters gives barely a sentence to the nurses of the First World War. Indeed, by then, Desmond Morton, Canada's bestknown contemporary military historian, had given more spacethan that to these nurses. His interest is the soldier but the chapter he devotes to the sick and wounded in When Your Number's Up is evocative of, sensitive to, and informative about nursing work. Since his study in 1993, only two graduate students have tackled the topic. Genevieve Allard's MA thesis for Laval makes skilful use of the oral history interviews done twenty years earlier with nurse veterans in Toronto. And that part of Leslie Newell's MSC(N.) thesis for Ottawa that deals with the war focuses on a Canadian hospital in England as part of the author's larger interest in military nursing in the interwar period. In all, then, neither military historians nor women's historians have given much attention to military nursing. Why these nurses have remained in the historiographic shadows is a puzzle in itself. In terms of numbers and action, they are of course insignificant compared to the male war effort. And the memory of that war effort, as Jonathan Vance has unintentionally reminded us in Death so Noble, is a profoundly masculine one. PerXXXV111

INTRODUCTION

haps a concentration on nursing would impose a recognition of the behind-the-lines reality of war: that the broken bodies of young men were under the supervision and care of strong, competent women. The fact that the young men themselves idealized the nurses and pictured them as angels suggests that, like others, they had difficulty with a female presence in a war zone. As for feminist historians, it may be the very gendered nature of nursing work in general and military nursing in particular that has them shying away from its study. To see women's traditional familial roles of tending to the sick professionalized and doubly subordinated, first to medical and then to military authority - both male - can be discouraging. And to have women actively and enthusiastically abetting a war effort can be equally distressing. What the military and feminist historians appear to share, in common indeed with the wounded soldiers, is the notion, gendered itself, that women and war don't go together. To that, Clare Gass and all the other nurses we have yet to hear from say, "Nonsense." The Gass diary came to light in a small town in Nova Scotia. A ten yearold girl, dressed as a nursing sister, read from her great-grand-aunt's diary as part of Remembrance Day ceremonies at her school in 1997. A Halifax paper caught the story and it came to the attention of the National Film Board, which was having a documentary made about John McCrae, the doctor-soldier-poet and colleague of Clare Gass at No. 3 CGH. Because Clare quoted McCrae's poem "In Flanders' Fields" almost six weeks before its publication in Punch in December 1915, her diary gets a footnote in history. It warrants more.37 Since the 1980s feminist historians have been scrutinizing women's diaries as documents of social history and women's culture. Literary scholars have added yet another interpretive layer by arguing for women's diaries as a literary form, the female version of autobiography. In that light diaries merit all the critical attention traditionally reserved for autobiographies by men. Helen Buss's Mapping Our Selves is an elegant and persuasive Canadian example of the trend in literary studies. Such studies remind us that there is more XXXIX

INTRODUCTION

to diaries than meets the eye, more to the Gass story, for example, than a major historical event seen through a woman's eyes. Where historians may balk, however, is the literary emphasis on "self and "identity," two concepts that would be puzzling, perhaps even distasteful, to the self-possessed but not self-conscious, much less selfabsorbed, military nurses of Clare Gass' generation.38 Clare Gass nonetheless intended to record her war-time adventure. While still in Montreal she obtained a substantial daily journal for 1915 (8"x7"x1") and began it on the eve of her departure for Quebec City and military training. Following contemporary conventions of women's domestic and travel diaries, she records events and sights more than emotions. She is circumspect about any physical hardship she experiences and only twice while overseas does she mention weeping. One can only guess at her level of anxiety as she reads daily lists of casualties for names of friends and relatives. Sustaining her spiritually are religion, poetry, and female friendships. Religious services draw her as a believer; the frequent insertion of poetry reveals her state of mind; and some of the friends - Granty and Ruth of the diary - predate the war and last a lifetime. Clare has an eye for landscape and a Canadian's sensitivity to European dirt. Writing the diary seems to have been a late-night occupation, the punctuation alone - periods and dashes galore, often in the oddest of places - suggesting speed, interruptions, or particular remembrances that, once stated, evoke additional detail. The busier Clare became, the less she recorded. The more routine her days, the less she commented. Her diary is a verbal photograph album. As such it matches her penchant for photography, one she pursued for the rest of her life and which emboldened her during the war to disobey army rules. Cameras were forbidden but Clare Gass went on snapping merrily away. Her photograph album covers the same years as the diary but seems to have been constructed well after the war. Wit the exception of one drawing from her autograph book, that album provided all the illustrations for the diary text presented here; pictures in the introduction and notes come from other sources, both public and private.39 xl

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As the war progressed, the diary entries become more concise. Even at the beginning of the war, however, Clare usually only filled half of each day's allotted page; so in 1916 she simply began the same book again, usually altering the day (1916 was a leap year) until she caught up with herself in March, and continuing the record of 1916 on the bottom half of the pages. As she was doing so, she likely reread the top part of the page and this may explain some of the marginal notes that context and handwriting suggest she added later. I have chosen not to impose her practical but idiosyncratic and occasionally confusing format on the readers of this publication; I have also checked her sign-posts to ensure that the two years are distinct. Where there has been any doubt - particularly when she copies a poem into her account - I have raised the question in a note. For some months I thought the diary ended after Christmas 1916. That required some explanation. Was she bored, tired, overworked, ill, cold? Had she, as many of the nurses did, changed units and gone off to places like St Petersburg, Lemnos, Alexandria, Salonika, or, more prosaically, to an elegant convalescent hospital for officers in England? Might she have gone home, as other nursing sisters did, to care for an ailing parent, usually a mother? Might she have resigned to be married, as did still other sisters, perhaps to that Montreal cousin? Historians' questions both lead to and bump up against the evidence. Official military records in the National Archives of Canada show that Clare Gass, besides being a 5'5", 128 lb., blue-eyed redhead, did none of the above. But nor did she stay put. She was not, for example, among the nursing sisters who were shipped off to England in "batches" in 1919 as a consequence of the McGill unit's being turned into a venereal hospital. By combing the Nominal Roll of Nursing Sisters for No. 3 CGH I spotted her leaving Boulogne at the beginning of November 1917 for action closer to the front with No. 2 Canadian Casualty Clearing Station (the ccs of her diary) at Remy Siding on the Belgian border. From there I was able to track her weekly duties in the nominal roll of that unit, a much more precise accounting of the whereabouts of the far fewer nurses there. xli

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The roll also recorded her return to Boulogne at the end of June 1918; from there she left for her final months of overseas duty in England in September. At that point the answer to my question about the diary ending in 1916 seemed to be that she was either too cold (the winter of 1916-17 was the worst in thirty-five years) or too busy to sustain the diary.40 But no. If historians are loath to give chance a role in their writings, they do rather appreciate chance's personal call, which it made to me during a visit to the Nova Scotia roots and relatives of Clare Gass in the spring of 1999. Shubenacadie, Hilden, Porter's Lake, Martinique Beach, Halifax, Bedford: each revealed mementos and memories of Clare. And among them, the continuation of the diary for 1917 and 1918. A historian's dream come true. I was still right, nonetheless, that Clare was busy. The diary books for the last two years of the war are tiny, the kind to slip into a pocket, the one for 1917 31/2"x3"x3/4"; the one for 1918 smaller still, 4"x3"x1/2". Her writing becomes even more condensed and the gaps longer. Indeed, the closer she is to the front, the less she recounts, almost as if the experience was beginning to be too much for language. Instead she records people and places and unusual events; she continues to do so at nightfall, jotting down the highlights of the day. This tends to happen on her days on leave, when she clearly has more time and more variety to record. That in itself may explain the many empty pages of 1918, for she seems to have had no leave at all from September 1917 to at least December 1918. By then she may have looked as 'Wretchedly" as the colleague she was replacing at the Casualty Clearing Station in 1917. Photos in her own album reveal - across the years of the war - a woman thinner, more drawn, and, with all due acknowledgment of contemporary photographic poses, more sombre. She was intact but clearly the war had taken its toll. The diary as presented here is an unaltered transcript of the original. As editor, I have wished to be as unobtrusive as possible. Except for the notation "No Entry" and the translation of nursing script into Xill

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regular numbers (1,2,3,4), all is as Clare wrote it, including spelling and punctuation. The latter are a charming reminder that diaries are fundamentally private documents; they are not classroom exercises. The punctuation reveals the rhythm and style of her language, perhaps also of her day, even of her personality ("lively, outspoken but friendly and understanding," remarked the Montreal Star on her retirement) .41 The spelling emphasizes the strangeness of her new landscape. On the maps, which show the locations of most of the European places mentioned in the diary, and at the first occasion in the text I have provided, in square brackets [], the standard placename spellings (as well as filling out the acronyms she uses); thereafter, unless comprehension is an issue, her spelling prevails. What to make of her consistent grade school misspelling of bicycle is another matter, for she is obviously familiar with this means of transport and recreation. In terms of content, a series of numbered notes seemed the most discreet way to provide identification, explanation, and commentary. Even here one runs into the hazards of women's history: men are more easily identifiable than women. In some cases, however, neither can be traced and I have left such individuals unidentified in their passing appearance on the stage of Clare Gass's wartime adventure. I hope her adventure will inspire readers to comb attics and basements for similar accounts, in diary or letter form, and to bring them to the attention of public archives throughout Canada.

SUSAN MANN

Montreal January 2000

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The Western Front, 1914-18 vClare Gass nursed here Furthest German Advance, Aug. - Sept. 1914 Trench Line, Dec. 1914 German Withdrawal, Mars. 1917 German Advance, Mar. - July 1918 Armistice Line, Nov. 11, 1918

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BB Clare Gass nursed here

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Ihe War IJiary v 0f Clare Gass 1915-1918

T H E W A R H I A R Y O F C L A R E GASS

1915 MARCH 4

Report that second contingent of the nurses for Magill [McGill] Hospital is to depart for Quebec [City] at very short notice. MARCH 5

Heard at 12 AM. we were to go to Quebec to Military Hospital by special train at 1.30. Cannot get away today but are told we can go tomorrow by 1.30 train. I spend afternoon with the McFadzens, but go home to tea & pack my things in the evening under Granty's watchful eye. Granty gave me my birthday gift early as I am going to be in Quebec on the 18th. A dear little wrist watch which is going to prove a great convenience & which I love already.1 MAKCH 6

Left Montreal 1.30 P.M. Slept & played cards on train journey not too trying. Found Miss Cooper, Miss Tate Mrs Giffin & several more of our friends to meet us when we arrived in Quebec at 6.30. Decided to take up our abode with Miss Cooper's party at Dufferin Terrace House 5 Genevieve Ave. Walked up the many hills & arrived finally at a high stone house of ancient aspect. Molly [MacDerrnot] 8c Gray & myself share the room with Miss Cooper's party. The room originally must have been either a ballroom or a huge drawing room. The great mirrors from floor to ceiling in their heavy gilt frames, the marbel mantels & stuccoed ceiling all speak of a different & older

WAR DIARY

period of Quebec's history. Everything looks quite cosy & comfortable in the dormitory like arrangements made here for us.2 MARCH 7

We had breakfast at 8 AM this morning & have reported for dut at 9.30. Were dismissed by [Matron] Miss [Katherine] M[a]cLatchy, (who seems a very charming woman) within the hour. Too late for church so Molly & I walked far on Grande Alice & finally went into the Ursuline Convent, where the white-robed nuns never leave the altar deserted. Came back in time for dinner, after which we had music - a young celloist & a lieutenant Creacy Miss Tate at the piano. Wrote letters afterwards to Granty & Mother, then had tea. Church in the evening. MARCH 8

Nothing of note has happened today. We ordered our uniforms & coat at Holt & Renfrew's on speculation this afternoon. I wish someone would arrange a new system of political economy in this old world. Molly is mad as a March hare this evening We played Five Hundred & she lost everything in sight. MARCH 9

Lecture with Miss McLatchy today. She has a sweet face & is most dignified. I am sure we shall like her. Spent the evening with our friends at Mount Carmel St. Under Whitneys management, an impromptu entertainment was produced. We played a few rounds of Bridge. Martial Law in our house so we must be in early. Miss Cooper is a stern moniter. Granty says as a tonic she has too much iron in her constitution for my especial needs. Granty is right though she little knows the circumstances. Cooper was so rude to me today. I am depressed, yet she is a most excellent woman.3 MARCH 1O

Typ. [hoid] Vaccine given in PM. - A dear letter from Grant. Great excitement when the first pilgrim returned from the bathroom this morning. A notice posted in that room probably the 4

1915

work of Lieutenant Creacy & his friend the only other boarders on this flat. They evidently have been inconvenienced by our monopoly of bathroom. NOTICE: Operation Order No i By Capt. X Co. Barricade No 5 St Genevieve St Parade

Reference to AM parade i. The Commander wishes to call your attention to the fact that abuses have been signaled in connection with morning parades to the bathroom. Advance 2. In future the AG. i.e. the officers of the Guard Guard Medical Corps will please parade from 6-7 AM Rear The Rear Guard, that is to say the shaving party, must Guard parade from 7-7.45. Flank These Flank Guards will parade as circumstances Guard permit Penalties Any person not obeying these orders will be court-marshalled. The minimum penalty will be $100 fine; the maximum two days CB [confined to barracks] Signed Adjutant in Charge of 2nd Floor In evening an indignation meeting held in our room over M.A's appearance in our midst.4 MARCH 11 Sore arms this morning. Wrote letters & posted them before supper. No excitement today. A quiet evening. I feel more cheerful today but Cooper's uncharitableness is decidedly depressing - & they talk - talk - talk till I am wear 5

WAR D I A R Y

M A R C H 12

This afternoon went out for a walk with Mollie in search of Notre Dame Church but could not find it. Went on the Terrace instead. Quebec is beautiful - the view this afternoom from the terrace was wonderful. M A R C H 13

Played Bridge this evening. Miss McLeod & Whitney came over for the game. Whitney and I won. Great talking all day today in the ward about M.A. A cutting letter in the Quebec Telegraph on the subject.5 MARCH 14

We went to Mrs Ritchies this afternoom to tea (just Molly & I). Mrs Ritchie is rather like Miss \foung her baby is a little doll Tonight I went alone to St. Matthews. Walked both ways. Am going to write to Granty. We sang hymns again today after dinner MARCH 15

Nothing worthy of note today. A list at last from England regarding our outfit, read to us by the Matron. 10.30 Such foolish dancing tonight downstairs. M A R C H 16

Played Bridge at Miss McLeod's room. Whitney and I won. M A R C H 17

Molly went to dinner with Martha Allen [Allan] tonight. We changed to afternoon duty today.6 Birthday wishes from home today. MARCH 18

My birthday. A dear letter with birthday wishes from Granty before breakfast. I went off by myself for a walk this morning to an old church in the lower town (Notre Dame de[s] Victoires) built in 1688 & afterwards for a walk on the terrace. An uneventful afternoon on the ward. Birthday wishes from [brothers] Rob and Reggie in the PM.

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MARCH 19

Lecture in P.M. Gray & Tate went to a room upstairs. It is better so, there are too many of us here MARCH 2O I had my second dose of Typhoid Serum & also vaccinated for Small pox today. We went to Moving Pictures tonight. Mrs Hall called today. I was on duty. MARCH 2 1 I went to early service this AM. It snowed during morning so we stayed in our room. I wrote letters. M A R C H 22

Molly went out to dinner Nothing else of note today M A R C H 23 Had a long letter from Father today in which he says he spent a day with [brother] Cyril recently. He thinks Cyril's battalion will be sailing on the 28th. Ruth Loggie & I went for a long walk round by the Citidal & Plains of Abraham to Ursuline Church where we stayed for the five o'clock Service.7 M A R C H 24 Lecture 3 PM M A R C H 25 Father writes Cyril is in Hospital with mumps & terribly disappointed as he fears his battalion may sail without him. Also a long letter from Granty telling me her brother Greggie is very ill. Poor Granty has surely had enough to bear already & is so dear and good M A R C H 26 Lecture 3 PM

7

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M A R C H 27

Lecture 3 PM. Third dose of Typhoid Vaccine M A R C H 28

Spent all the afternoon with Mrs Hall. Went to church with Molly in evening. Mrs Hall talked of the babies & Forsythe. She looks remarkably well. Leslie has asked Molly & me for dinner Tuesday Eve. M A R C H 29

Examination today. A long paper. I wrote only fairly well but know I will pass. M A R C H 3O

Edith Engelke took snapshots of us in the Operating room this morning. Went through the Hotel Dieu afterwar[d]s with Miss Gray & Tate to the service in the Ursuline Church at five PM. Molly & I went to dinner to the Halls. Had such a nice evening. Molly thoroughly enjoyed it. MARCH 31

Tomorrow we leave for Montreal. Am thankful in many ways. Although I have liked Quebec very much & in some ways have enjoyed the month - many things have happened which took the heart out of things. I don't know what is the matter with me but I have wept on several occassions of late. I must be growing thin skinned, or foolish to say the least of it. Government cheques this afternoon. Holt Renfrews also for fittings Tonight Mrs Giffin Molly & Miss Cooper have gone out for supper at the Frontenac so I am alone. By this time tomorrow I will be at home with my dear Granty - one person at least who always wants me & can forgive my foolishnesses. A P R I L l - MAY 5 NO ENTRIES

MAY 6

We left Montreal at 10.30 AM on the RMS Metagama. Such a wonderful leave taking & so many people on the pier & such beautiful 8

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sunshine. The morning on the river was perfect & at night as we neared Quebec the lights of the city & the last lights in the sky made a scene like fairyland. Bands on deck. Wrote Mother & Granty for post at Quebec. I would be true for there are those who trust me I would be pure for there are those who care I would be strong for there is much to 2

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Ruth Loggie, "portrait" by Clare Gass of explosion to go on late into the morning. The loss is about 5 million pounds worth of ammunition besides the village & a terrible toll of innocent lives. J U L Y 23 CC in AM as usual. Red Cross Hut in PM. It is a busy place. The Australians are splendid lads. As Capt Evans says "They are here for the job" After dinner Ruth & I bycicled out to the Souverin Moulin through Rupembert to the St Omer road then down through the woods by the steep hill to the village & the Chateau. We had coffee & cake in the tea garden of the cafe at the foot of the hill then came back by Wimille & walked through the Vallee du Denacre back to camp. The Vallee with its summer coat of thick leafy green is quite a different valley to the early spring Vallee but just as wonderful.

1

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J U L Y 24 - 26 NO ENTRIES JULY 27

Had a half day & went with Ruth, Dickie, Miss Powell & Miss Bradley for a cab drive through Ambleteuse district to Marquise & back by Offrethun & Souverin Moulin Mr. Markham's Concert party in the evening played "Which is Which" Today JULY 28 Cyrils letter of 26th reached me today: he was to have his second operation yesterday JULY 29 NO ENTRY J U L Y 3O

A little note from Cyril says he is allright. J U L Y 31 — A U G U S T 2 NO ENTRIES

AUGUST 3 Half day & Ruth & I went into town to have our hair washed & to do a bit of shopping. AUGUST 4 Such heavy gunfire somewhere to the north last night. No news of its meaning this morning AUGUST 5 Ruth & I after dinner rode through the wheat fields & the sunset to Wierre [-] Effroy, by the Souverin Moulin road. Such lovely countryside 8c lovely harvest fields. At Wierre Effroy which is a pretty village there is a quaint isth Century Church & a magic well of St Godeleine to which yearly pilgrimages go. We went into the church for a little while and it was quite dark before we got back to camp AUGUST 6 Took Mrs Giffm for a little bycicle ride this evening down the La Poterie road. 134

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Cyril in hospital, Leicester AUGUST 7 Tremendous gun fireing somewhere to the north last night. No news of it today Cyril's last letter tells me he hopes I wont go to England just yet for my leave as he is not yet able to get up. AUGUST 8 Claire McLeod left us today for England to be married. The King was in Boulogne today. Some of the sisters & officers saw him. Canon Hanny at CC told us about him. Capt Hodson also told us the story of how he crossed the Channel after his accident last year & how all his attendants were seasick. Capt Evans at CC is asking for special leave today. Connie Stuart & Kaireen McKay went out on the bycicles tonight. AUGUST 9 NO ENTRY

AUGUST 10 Some days ago the news that Martha Allen had resigned from the CAMC reached us 2 4

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AUGUST 1 1

Half day — Constance Stuart, Kaireen McKay & I went for a picnic out to Wierre Effroy on our bycicles. Such a nice afternoon - we rode through the Souverin Moulin valley then up the hill & had our tea in the woods back of the village of Wierre; rested for about an hour there lying on the grass then went round through the village, stopped for a little while at the church then on to the Holy Well of St Godeline - where we all drank of the water. Had Coffee & Pancakes at Cafe de Souverin Moulin on our way home. It has been such a nice day. A U G U S T 12

St. Claire's day - Mademoiselle Rose has told us that all girls have two birthdays in France. One on the real date of their birth which they call "L'An[n]iversaire" & the other on the day of the Saint for whom they are named called "La Fete" - so this is "La Fete" pour moi A U G U S T 13

Last hours today, so Ruth & I & Misses Clark & Gray took our tea down by the little brook near "the Lane" A U G U S T 14

Walked after dinner with Miss Cooper down to the Cemetary to find Arthur Pentz's grave, but as it was late we returned without finding out more than that he was buried there. Had wonderful baked beans in Miss Clarks room later. A U G U S T 15

The Anniversary of the coming of Notre Dame de Boulogne to these shores. The grand procession to be held next Sunday. A U G U S T 16 NO ENTRY

AUGUST 1 7

Stephie & Tate & Miss Brand came off night duty tonight & had a picnic tea down by the brook, so Ruth & I joined them & we read Kipling after tea "Below the Milldam" & "They." After dinner we (Ruth & I) went out on our bycicles & explored "Moulin 136

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L'Abbe" [Moulins-l'Abbe] Valley. It is such a peaceful pretty spot AUGUST 18 NO ENTRY

A U G U S T 19 Had my half day & went down town with Ruth. & after dinner went out for a bycicle ride through La Poterie & Wimille & got caught in a storm of rain. AUGUST 2O Went to Ward W. to open up the new ward there (with Alice Stewart) in part of the old ruin - Such a busy day & some very bad wounds from last nights convoy. This is the Anniversary Procession Day in Boulogne of the arrival of the Miraculous Statue. I would have liked to have seen the quaint dresses of the Procession but we did not have a minute off duty all day. A U G U S T 21 Very busy all day. No news of my leave though it is now a week since I applied for it A Navel engagement of which very few details are given is reported tonight in the North Sea. We heard heavy fireing in the direction of the Sea all this morning.2^ AUGUST 22 Some bad wounds in last night. We have two such nice lads here light duty patients Satinover, an Australian & Cameron a Scottie26 A U G U S T 23 Heard today that our leave has gone through so expect to go at a moments notice 2 ? A U G U S T 24 NO ENTRY

AUGUST 25 We left by the 10 o'clock boat, Miss McConnell for Ireland to see her mother who is ill & I for Leicester - Had lunch on the London train. Arrived London 2.30 pm - Went to Matron in Chiefs office then back to the Hotel where Mr McConnell had come to 137

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meet his sister. Went to see Daddy Long Legs in the evening, walked home from the theatre — such dark dark streets - It seemed almost impossible to find the way at times AUGUST 26

Left by 9 AM train for Leicester. Arrived midday & after leaving my things at the YWCA went to the hospital to find Cyril in good spirits but very thin indeed & with no appetite or strength, up & about on crutches. Took him into the town for tea & a drive in Abbey Park & stayed with him afterwards till nine o'clock.28 AUGUST 27

Sat with Cyril in hospital grounds all morning - in the afternoon took him into town to tea. Met Mr & Mrs Stokes, & stayed with him till dark. - The sister here a Miss Francis has been very kind indeed to Cyril & most courteous to me, She took me over the hospital this afternoon AUGUST 28

Spent morning in hospital grounds & started with Cyril immediately after lunch for a motor drive into Warwickshire. Such a nice afternoon, first to Coventry, with its quaint old streets & beautifully kept modern town & lovely church spires. The roads around specially beautifully - From Coventry to Leamington & then out to Kenilworth Castle where we left the Motor & explored the old ruin. Cyril doing wonderfully well on his crutches - I took several snaps of the ruin. Back to Leamington & from thence to Warwick - a lovely old town where we had tea after which we went out to see that marvellous place Warwick Castle then along through Shakespeare's country by the quiet Avon passed thatchedroofed cottage [s] & through beautiful country roads & lanes. It was a long ride about 80 miles in all & we arrived in Leicester just as the sun was setting: Cyril was not a bit tired & really had enjoyed the day. A U G U S T 29

Very rainy - I took Cyril up to the Museum in the afternoon & after taking him back to the hospital went into town for my own tea & brought him sandwitches & other dainties for his tea. 138

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A U G U S T 3O

Sat in Hospital grounds in AM & took Cyril into town for the Moving Pictures & tea - then back to Hospital where I stayed till dark AUGUST 31

Went to a matinee with Cyril - such a funny play - we laughed heartily at some parts. Tea afterwards & a bit of shopping - we bought a little Queen Elizabeth bell for Mother SEPTEMBER 1

As it proved rather an uncertain day we went to the pictures again - Cyril likes them - then to tea. He is really looking a bit better & seems to enjoy his meals more than when I first came. In the mornings before it is time to go to the Hospital I usually go for a walk & explore the town. I've found some interesting old churches but for the most part Leicester is a clean well kept modern red brick town. SEPTEMBER 2

The pictures again this afternoon as Cyril likes them for a change & the weather has not been very certain. SEPTEMBER 3 A motor drive out into the country by the Stony Gate road, then back to hospital & we talked late into the evening as it was my last day in Leicester 29 SEPTEMBER 4

Left by morning train for London. The Kingsley Hotel is full of Canadian nurses recently arrived from Canada. Went out for a long walk in pm Sc finally ended up in Kensington Gardens for tea. Came back between showers which had suddenly started SEPTEMBER 5 Loo [k] ed up Muriel, & spent the day with her going in the evening with her & her Aunt to see Chin Chin Chou at his Majesty's a delightful modern version of Ali Baba & the Forty Thieves Westminster Abbey 139

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Cyril on crutches SEPTEMBER 6

Left for Folkstone by early train. Went to Queens Hotel & waited there after lunch for B.A. & K.N. - & went with them later to Canterbury where we had a delightful afternoon. The Cathedral is grand. SEPTEMBER 7

Spent day at Hospital with B.A. & left for France at 7.00 pm. Ruth was down to meet us. SEPTEMBER 8 Went on duty in Ward W. Six new Nurses have come during my absence - a Western nurse Miss Jennings is in my room with me; Had supper in Stevies room last night. I went to Ward W. in the old ruin. Very busy there. Found my room beautifully arranged by Miss Ruth Loggie clean curtains up etc & everything in order. 140

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SEPTEMBER 9 Ruth & I had last hours & went down to old town for tea & shopping for Ruth. SEPTEMBER 1O A very big convoy last night — mostly Canadians from the Somme. Such bad bad cases. I like Capt Woods' work &: he is so kind & good to the men. Our ward is full & we are sending these patients out quickly which makes for very strenuous work. Miss Jennings & I do all the dressings & some of them are such big ones. S E P T E M B E R 11 Such a busy busy day S E P T E M B E R 12 Orders to evacuate everything possible are in order, & all preparations for a big rush are on. S E P T E M B E R 13 Our Ward is almost empty again so I had my half day & Ruth & I had a lovely long afternoon out in the country on our bycicles out the St Omer Road, through the Boulogne Forest to Le Waast & Colembert where we had tea (most extraordinary tea infusion of tobacco I think). Home by Wierre Effroy & Souverin Moulin - a lovely ride & home in time for dinner S E P T E M B E R 14 Ruth goes on night duty tonight S E P T E M B E R 15 Miss Clark left for Canada today. Her mother is very ill - Three new sisters came today S E P T E M B E R 16 Three big convoys last night. Our ward full again, no patients & our own dear Canadian lads - the 2nd Division has lost heavily We have a 21 st boy in who came over with us on the boat. Nearly all their officers are gone. S E P T E M B E R 17 We are very very busy, & our patients very sick - terrible wounds & most of them are such bricks. 141

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The weather has become very rainy & miserably cold. S E P T E M B E R 18 NO ENTRY

S E P T E M B E R 19 I go on night duty in Ward O & T tonight SEPTEMBER 2O Have 46 beds in O & 88 in T to look after some medical & some surgical SEPTEMBER 21 As usual I cannot sleep in the day Two convoys tonight Camiers Aug - Nov 153,041 Boulogne Feb -July 21 14,325 Admitted July ist to July 21 6,006 Deaths during July .423° S E P T E M B E R 22 Went down town this morning with Dick & Ruth — took Ruth's bycicle to get the pedal mended Guns firing not far south tonight & many search lights & star shells in the sky S E P T E M B E R 23 Heard today that R P Campbell has been killed - this will be a terrible blow to the medical profession in Montreal 8c the loss to the world of one more good man - a doctor & a gentleman.31 SEPTEMBER 24 Last night for a long time the sky in the west was lighted up with fire works. - & the search lights were out in full force. - There was also a great deal of distant gunfireing. Ruths Australian put in an appearance again last night. He is at the Etaples base. S E P T E M B E R 25 Heard today there was an air raid over south & midlands of England & two Zeps brought down one of which was taken intact & its crew captured.32 Rumour says that our friend Lapp has been recommended for 142

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the DCM [Distinguished Conduct Medal]. S E P T E M B E R 26 Went down town &: had my hair washed this morning. In my convoy tonight there were a great many Canadian boys. SEPTEMBER 27 The war news today is very good. Our troops have taken Combles & many prisoners 8c war material. I hope the casualties are not heavy. The weather lately has been beautiful. Clear September days SEPTEMBER 28 Went out after breakfast into the dewy fields to pick mushrooms. Ruth & I. Met a litde French boy Edward Latteux, such a clever polite child of Modern France. He came with us over the hills in our search. These are his last days of holiday time for on Sunday he goes back to school in Paris. We made an engagement with him to meet him tomorrow morning. We got a nice lot of mushrooms [Marginal notation:] (Me Eduard Latteau College St Charles St Brique Cote du nord Paris) SEPTEMBER 29

Last night die sky was brilliant at times with the illumination eidier of gun fire or guide lights. Heavy fireing heard in the distance. In spite of the rain Ruth & I kept our appointment with the French laddie & went for a long tramp in rain coats & rubber boots with him. Brought back a huge basket full Be my hat as well. Treated the neighbourhood for supper tonight As we came in this morning wet & weary, Roy Glennister was singing in our Anti hut. We stayed for half an hour to listen. I slept very badly today SEPTEMBER 3O

I receive patients in this Ward every night but last night was a specially busy one & as usual I am sleeping very badly OCTOBER l A lovely morning, with heavy dew so Ruth with Alice Stewart & I went for a little ride out the St Omer road then over the hill & down to L'Abbe Moulin, where we took a couple of snaps of the 143

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old mill, then went down by the brook among the reeds above the dam & watched the water on the old wheel - then back to our bycicles where we met an old Frenchman in velveteens who spoke very good English & advised us not to leave our bycicles, in full view of passersby, but we told him that all French people were honest & there was no danger. We then pushed up the hill through blackberrie bordered lane to St Lambert [Saint-Lambert] & home by the Desvres road. OCTOBER 2

On the Somme for these last weeks our troops have been advancing steadily, slowly & surely, but the lists of casualties are large & our hospital has been busy. Also there are a great many sick especially from the Ypres Salient A rainy day all day today in which everyone slept well. OCTOBER 3

Went down town this AM with D. R. & W. & while there bought Granry a pretty French dressing gown for Christmas - also some necessities for myself. Another Zepp brought down in England reported today. OCTOBER 4

Mickys birthday. Went to bed early but did not sleep well. Read nearly all afternoon OCTOBER 5

Bycicled out to No. 14 Stationary, with Ruth this am to see two Canadian lads that I sent down with [from?] my ward with enteric. They were so glad to see us. - Anderson & King OCTOBER 6

The weather has been very windy of late, also very showery though on the whole it is better than that of this time last year. OCTOBER 7

Poor Dicky has heard that he[r] Mother has had a stroke & may linger some time, so has put in her resignation. It will be some time however I am afraid before the War Office will put it through. & the uncertainty of the long waiting is horrible. Miss Mann has just had a similar experience 144

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OCTOBER 8

I got up for service this afternoon at 5.45 PM We had a rather wonderful address from Canon Hanny. Richards took the Service in his own unique style. OCTOBER 9 Ruth & I went down town this morning & were rather late getting in. Ruth chose paper for her room to cover up the draughty cracks & make it warm for the winter. OCTOBER 10

Mr. Makeham brought a concert party up for this afternoon & evening. The performance was very good. We went for the first part of it at 5.30 PM. O C T O B E R 11

Got up early this afternoon & went with Stephie & Ruth by car out to 14 Stationary to see our patients there. Took them books & Canadian Papers. OCTOBER 12 - 13 NO ENTRIES OCTOBER 14 Ruth & I went down town & had our hair washed this AM. I also got a pair of brass candlesticks (anciens) for Father for Christmas. OCTOBER 15 NO ENTRY

O C T O B E R 16 Princess Victoria Concert Party tonight O C T O B E R 17 NO ENTRY

OCTOBER 18

Following a period of rainy windy weather, it is bitterly cold & clear tonight. Almost like Canadian weather minus the home comforts. OCTOBER 19 Heard today that Stalky [Pte. Stockwell] Day, who was with us all last year at Camiers (Boysie Wood's friend) who has since taken 1

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his commission & gone up the line, has been so badly wounded, Compound fracture of upper leg, injury to spine & paralysed - a dear lad, so full of brigh[t]ness & cheerfulness in spite of everything. If death might only come without all the suffering that will be his. Boysie came through yesterday on his way I think to see Day. His brother Chester, is also with him at Rouen. OCTOBER 2O Am sleeping much better lately. So much so that Ruth & I both slept in tonight 8c missed our dinner in consequence. Never wakened till ten minutes to seven. It is still bitterly cold. We have no stoves in our huts as yet. I hope they will put them in soon as we are very cold indeed in our quarters. In the wards we have enjoyed fires for the last two days. OCTOBER 2 1 Sunderland the Australian appeared again at Ward S today on pass from his Etaples base. His advent is interesting to me on account of Clark's intense dislike of anything Australian. These patients of Ruth's are very interesting from a physiological point of view, Sunderland is a big fine looking physical specimen with an atmosphere of "winds in the open" about him while Clark has a narrow clean cut face with regular features & is the product of one of the great old universities of England. Both started out equally in Ruth's favour - the former has risen while the latter's fall is only a matter of moments. OCTOBER 22 A couple of nights ago with the convoy came a very young New Zealand lad, a shell shock case - Edney - . His talk in his sleep was all of "Reg" & "We'll get there yet Reg" the most frequent cry. Tonight he told me his story - poor laddie - a gentle sweet faced boy from whom this war has claimed its own. He & Reg came out from New Zealand a year ago & as Regimental Stretcher bearers have been together ever since - Reg apparently the stronger lad of the two. In the last action while carrying out a stretcher together Reg was hit & had to give up his place to another. When Edney returned to his friend after getting his a

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patient to a safe place Reg was so weak he was unable to walk & no help was at hand so Edney with all his strength managed to carry him almost three miles when a great shell burst near him 8c when consciousness returned he found Reg still beside him but the poor lad's head had been severed from his body. Edney wishing to die also was found by other stretcher bearers & compelled to go to the dressing station Be so down to us. He can't sleep poor laddie & I sat beside him for a long time tonight & he w[h]ispered the long sad tale to me while the others slept around us. Then when we had both wept a little over it he became quiet again & I gave him a sleeping draught & he had a dreamless sleep till daylight OCTOBER 23 Off night duty with much relief. Ruth & I went to Calais by train this morning & had a very nice afternoon in the old town whose name Mary said was written on her heart. We went to the Church of Notre Dame an imposing solid structure of which Peeps into Picardy speaks. Also saw the house in which Lady Hamilton died & really had a very nice day. OCTOBER 24 Went to Ward D in the PM. A big surgical ward - with 125 beds in the old Assembly hall of the Monastery. Beds on the gallery stage & main floor. One frightfully sick boy at present - a Canadian laddie, Moore Jackson from Toronto - an English boy Lusty gave 1/2 pt blood today to try to tide this poor wasted body over a crisis - I hope it will be of use -Jackson with a red head lying on the pillow - wasted frame & deeply sunken eyes two weeks under the awful poison of gas gangreen is fighting for life - a clever highly strung constitution clinging to life when another would have secumbed a week ago - one leg is off & the other is so full of incisions it seems hardly possible he can live. Such a lovable character - even in his agony he has a wonderful smile - His poor mother sent him a cake for his birthday today with a message hoping they would all be together for his birthday in 1917. 147

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O C T O B E R 25 Allen Jackson, such a fine young lad seventeen years old & such a man arrived today - Needless to say he was shocked at his brothers condition. We are all so glad he has come as our boy is much worse, irrational & weaker OCTOBER 26

Our sick Canadian laddie died today. OCTOBER 27 Allen Jackson is staying with us till Saturday when his brother is to be buried. Such a brave boy & the only child his mother has left. Please God he may be spared for her. Miss Whitney has been writing Mrs Jackson OCTOBER 28 - 29 NO ENTRIES

OCTOBER 3O Wrote Ruth invitations in rhyme for her Hallow ee'n party OCTOBER 3 l We had such a nice quiet Hallowe'en dinner "en famille" tonight in our mess. Ruth had a party in her Ward Kitchen for her up patients NOVEMBER 1 It has rained every day for two weeks with high winds. Our ward is very busy - many bad cases Have been spending my hours off fixing up my room with Ruth but can't finish up till the men get our stoves in NOVEMBER 2 The french workmen are putting in tiny coal stoves in our rooms French lesson with Mickie & Mrs Giffin NOVEMBER 3 Ruth & I had our half day & in spite of the rain went down town & afterwards went out to Wimereux to see Molly who is in hospital there. She is better & will go on sick leave to England soon. We had a ride home in a red cross car in the pouring rain. A large convoy last night. We got over 50 patients from it. 148

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NOVEMBER 4

A Hallowe'en fancy dress party in the Red Cross Hut tonight. I did not go but relieved for Francis McKeen who is night nurse in O. Our room is finished at last & is so nice & cosy "Romance of the Oxford Colleges" arrived today for Ruth much to her dismay from Clark NOVEMBER 5

A frightful storm of wind & rain tonight & all afternoon. Many small boats wrecked on the coast. NOVEMBER 6

No mail today - the port closed after yesterday's storm. I have a very bad headache tonight NOVEMBER 7

Am still feeling rather miserable so went right to bed when I came off duty & Ruth brought my dinner down to me. Had several callers tonight Lou Gillis, Naomi Gray & Watling - the latter going on leave tomorrow Still no mail. NOVEMBER 8

Our Ward has been practically emptied in an evacuation to England, so I had the whole day off & slept in this morning as I was not feeling very energetic. After lunch Ruth & I went to the cemetary to locate the grave of a patient - after which we went down town. At Meridews we were waited on by "our friend the impossible French Youth" in his most patronizing manner. To an English soldier who came in looking for a book on French gramar, he put on his grandest air & after getting the soldier to explain several times that he wanted a book from which to study French, the boy said suddenly "Why didn't you say so at the first" in his extraordinary manner & disappeared to get it. Dickie & Mann were to sail on Sat to Canada from Liverpool. NOVEMBER 9 NO ENTRY

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N O V E M B E R 10

The Duke of Connaught visited our Ward & the rest of the Hospital today. NOVEMBER 11

Edney & another New Zealand lad came down from O to see me this morning. I brought them to speak with our New Zealander Ralph who has just regained his speech. When Ralph came in he was an almost hopeless case but his improvement has been wonderful. Wounded in the head all one side was paralyzed & his speech gone, absolutely two days ago however he began to speak so slowly & badly at first but almost perfectly now. He was pleased to see his fellow country men. Had two cards from Cyril tonight - one of himself & the other taken with BV [brothers Blanchard Victor] & Athel. The latter he calls "The latest War News" for he has just returned from spending two day[s] in camp with the NS Scottish. Cyril looks well as do also the other boys. Athel is so big & fine & Blanchard as smart a soldier as I have ever seen. [Later notation:] Ralph died in Eng early in Jan 1917. N O V E M B E R 12

Edney & his friend came in again this morning & after spending nearly an hour with our patient they came to church with Miss Ross & me & our little church parade party - the two Jocks - a Canadian - Albert (who by the way is an RC [Roman Catholic]) & several other Englishmen. Albert has been helping in our kitchen for some time - an Englishman (Yorkshire) a splendid fellow - plain of physique but so gentle 8c reliable a treasure — He won the DSO [Distinguished Service Order] last year & it was I am sure most thoroughly merited. N O V E M B E R 13

Had half day with Ruth & went out in the car to our old haunts in the Etaples district. Things have changed there in a year. German prisoners camp outside Camiers & they in hundreds & working on a new railroad there. We caught the street car to 150

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Paris Plage - Back to Etaples at 4 PM then walked to No i Saw Dixon, & Miss Young. Of course as usual to spoil our happiness Ruth developed a headache late in day NOVEMBER 14 — 16 NO ENTRIES

NOVEMBER 17

Had a real fire in our room tonight. Such a comfort - I got coals & had it on when Ruth came off N O V E M B E R 18

Ruth & I went down town & did a bit of Christmas shopping on our hours off. Ruth got a dressing gown, in dark blue material like Grantys for her mother. Read Dickens with Naomi Gray & Stephie in the evening NOVEMBER 19

A rainy day & our roof is leaking badly. Ruth mended it herself today but not with much effect. N O V E M B E R 2O

Heavy rain & roof still leaking. Some very sick patients in our ward & we are very busy but I love the work with these brave lads NOVEMBER 2 l

Ruth & I had our half day. We walked to Souverin Moulin. Had tea 8c pan cakes. Went by the Valley & Wimille & back by the back road - Dark before we reached the Calvary - found two Australian Soldiers near there lost 8c directed them. N O V E M B E R 22

Went to Australian Hosp No 2 General with Stephie & Ruth tonight for dinner enjoyed the visit very much - these are such frank open hearted women these Australian nurses. We enjoyed their photograph [s] & tales of their Egyptian experience after dinner round the fire in Miss Deara's room. Very busy in our Ward. I am doing all the up patient's dressings this week on the upper gallery. N O V E M B E R 23 - D E C E M B E R 15 NO ENTRIES

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D E C E M B E R 16

All week Ruth & I in our spare time, have been getting things together. — for our parcels to the front - & in the evening we have been cracking nuts stuffing dates etc beside our little comfy stoveD E C E M B E R 17 NO ENTRY

DECEMBER 18

We sisters have for days now been preparing for Christmas. Now my parcels for the boys at the front are all finished & posted so I can turn my whole attention in my spare time to the preparations in the Ward where I am sister in charge at present. We have been quite busy with a shifting population of wounds of medium severity - a number of those too sick to be moved & also a number of slight wounds which will stay with us till they are fit for CC or duty again - Among the former are Todd - May -Jock & [blank] who have been with us a long time & among the latter such nice lads who help us greatly in the daily routine - Shafer — Albert - Blanch - Faulkner Cranshaw Price, Osborne - Read -Jock Gray - Parker & four BWI's [British West Indies] or the "Tar Babies" as Whit calls them. D E C E M B E R 19

Our convalescent patients have been allowed out to gather holly & greens & the decorating of our ward is proceeding merrily. D E C E M B E R 2O - 2 1 NO ENTRIES

D E C E M B E R 22

Miss Hoerner 8c I spent the evening in the Red Cross hut doing up the Christmas Altar in white & gold. DECEMBER 23 This Eve spent some time in fixing the Church flowers for tomorrow & Christmas. D E C E M B E R 24 Everything ready for Christmas day. At 6 PM as I was crossing the road from our lines being in a 152

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hurry to return to the Ward I stumbled & fell in the dark down the flight of steps which lead to the road. For a moment I was stunned by the fall but came quickly to the realization that I was sitting in the mud & a soldier, big & dark against the sky was be [ar] ing down upon me on the left - also that there was an excruciating pain in my rt ankle & that I was weeping. Miss Archibald arriving also at that minute I was helped back up the stairs & on to my bed. Later having recovered I returned to the Ward where after dinner we sisters trimmed the tree. Went to Midnight service in Red Cross Hut. Such a nice Service. Our little English lad Blanch says the nicest Service he has been to since he was confirmed. We sent forty patients out today & got forty new ones in from the front; Late in our lines stealthy figures might be seen steeling from hut to hut - & the little gifts of one sister to another in transport. DECEMBER 25 Peace on Earth & the world at war. Yet in spite of this fact we had such a happy, happy day, doing for these lads, our best to make it a Happy Christmas. Blanch promises to write down for me the doings of the day. He, representing the patients made a wonderful little speech after dinner - thanking the sisters.33 Easton a patient as Santa Glaus was a great success. A band from a regiment in town arrived opportunely during dinner & played carols. (I am very uncomfortably lame today but that mattered not at all) & at 6 a[p]m our own convalescent patients sang the carols for the Wards. One of the happiest days I have ever spent. Dinner with our officers in Red Cross Hut in evening Dec 25th [1916] List how they wander the stars among The first fair notes of the Heavenly Song! Solemnly sweetly it echoes still "Peace upon earth and to men good will." Tidings of Joy! From all weary hearts 153

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The care that has burdened the night departs. Tidings of Joy! It is Christmas morn, And lo, The Light of the World is Born! DECEMBER 26

Blanch transferred to Annex today & came on Ward as orderly. DECEMBER 27 -28 NO ENTRIES DECEMBER 29 Shafer is to go to the Annex & to Ward A. I had a long talk with the lad today. December 30 NO ENTRY

DECEMBER 3 1

Another year ended - a year filled with many sad yet many happy days - In our work in the Hospital we have been happy the busy days full of interest - so busy that they have flown & the year on looking back has not been a long one in many ways - Yet when one looks at its toll of lives lost then it has been long indeed. Surely this coming year will bring peace to the world.

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THE WAR DI.VKV OF CLARE GASS

1917 JANUARY 1 - 1 1

NO ENTRIES J A N U A R Y 12

Went to England via Calais & Folkstone on leave. Blanchard met me at Kingsley Hotel London at 6 PM. Dinner at the hotel. Blanchard is such a fine, well groomed manly lad — so big and strong and clever - & so absolutely spick and span J A N U A R Y 13

Did a bit of shopping with Blanchard in the morning & to a matinee "London Pride" in which Gerald du Maurier played in pm. Again to see Gladys Cooper in "The Misleading Lady" in the evening. Between the first performance & dinner time we went down to the litde photograph shop on the Strand to get more of the snaps the three boys had taken together. J A N U A R Y 14

Went to St Paul's with Blanchard in the morning. Walked back to our hotel by the Law Courts & Chancery Lane. In the afternoon went for a long walk out to Kensington Gardens &: to see Muriel Whalley at Prince's Gate later, Blanchard left 9.30 PM for Witley Camp. J A N U A R Y 15

Shopped most of day for various necessities & a few luxuries among the former many cheap books for our patients & among

WAR D I A R Y

Lance Corporal Blanchard Gass and Lt Nursing Sister Clare Gass

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the latter a few of my favourite authors for myself. J A N U A R Y 16

Went to Putney to see Muriel in morning; had lunch there & came back to town with her to a matinee in the afternoon, J.M. Barrie's "A Kiss for Cinderella" such a pretty play. Read in my room before a cosy grate fire after dinner. J A N U A R Y 17

Am still waiting to hear from Athel so put in the time by going to a matinee this afternoon to find on my return (the play was "Romance" in which Doris Keane played) two telegrams one from B.V. saying if I wished to see Athel I must come to Bramshott at once; the other from Beatrice M to say she and Knighty would come to London for tomorrow. They arrived 8 PM. J A N U A R Y 18

Arose at 5 AM to catch the six o'clock train to Godalming - got a taxi at Godalming & motored 8 miles over good roads 8c through a beautiful tract of waste lands - hilly & covered with purple broom, through Witley to Bramshott - Found Athel after an hour's search in that enormous camp - saw his Colonel & took him to Liphook the nearest town. Had lunch at the Royal Anchor Hotel & spent the afternoon walking in the pretty lanes there abouts with him. Came back to London about 8 PM - after BA & KN had gone. J A N U A R Y 19

Met Gertrude Baynes at my hotel at noon. Went with her to the Drury Lane Pantomime after lunch & on our return to the Hotel for tea found Sara McNaughton had arrived from No 3. Sara and I went to see Potash and Pearlmutter in the evening as there was nothing else to do. J A N U A R Y 2O

Gertrude met us at the Hotel at ten & we took Miss McNaughton to the bank & did a bit of shopping with her. Had lunch at the Trocadero & met Muriel & went to see the "Bing Boys" in the afternoon. 157

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Gertrude had tea with us & later Sara & I went out to see "The Private Secretary" together. Card from Athel tonight tells me he is leaving today from Liverpool for home.1 JANUARY 2 l

I took a morning train to Godalming where Blanchard met me. We had lunch at the King's Arms & then walked four miles to Guil[d]ford where we spent the rest of the afternoon & had tea - Saw Charlie Withrow. & met a friend of Blanchard's - George Lye —. Arrived in London 8 PM. J A N U A R Y 22

Shopped with Sara most of day & with her went to see Chu Chin Chow at his Majestys in the evening. J A N U A R Y 23

Left by a 9.45 train for Oxford where we had a lovely day with the Lefroys - Miss Lefroy met us at the station & took us to Trinity & the Divinity Schools & Balliol in the morning. Then we went to Queen's for lunch where the Provost was as charming as ever - After lunch we talked in front of the fire for a while the[n] went to Magdalen - All Souls - Oriel - the Bridge the Botanical gardens & Christ Church Cathedral - then back to Queens to tea & we left to catch the six o'clock train. J A N U A R Y 24

Went out to see Muriel this morning - then back to do some shopping with Sara in the afternoon J A N U A R Y 25

Went by 10 am train to Folkestone. Met by BA and Knight stayed with them at Moore Barracks — talked by the fire in their room in the evening. BA & Knighty took me out to Canterbury in the afternoon - The Cathedral is marvellously beautiful. J A N U A R Y 26

Beatrice A & I went into the town in the morning & had our photographs taken. Left by afternoon boat. A rough crossing. I was very sick. 158

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JANUARY 27 Went on duty at noon. Many of my old friends gone from the Ward. J A N U A R Y 28 -31 NO ENTRIES

FEBRUARY 1 With Mrs Giffin Miss Eastwood & Miss Bliss went to tea at Madam Boulier's met Mademoiselle Rose's young brother & enjoyed the visit very much. The old people are delightful. The Grandfather a veteran of iSyo. 2 FEBRUARY 2 - 4 NO ENTRIES FEBRUARY 5 We have been having wonderful weather (Canadian weather really) clear & cold with bright sunshine & almost half a foot of snow & very very cold - It is almost impossible to keep warm in the huts but Ward D in the old ruin with five stoves is very comfortable FEBRUARY 6 - 9 NO ENTRIES

F E B R U A R Y 1O Heard today while on duty that the 85th had arrived in Boulogne. Later a telegram came from Blanchard. Ruth came with me through the snow, first to Anstrove Camp in search of them, then to St Martins where we found them. Saw Blanchard for a few minutes, then had to leave as it was getting dark. Met Major Ralston the Adjutant & Mr Croft.3 F E B R U A R Y 11 Blanchard came to the Ward at 11 am & we went out to lunch together. Miss Stephen came with us. In the afternoon Miss Sedgewick & I went up to the Camp as she wished to see some Musquodoboit lads. I saw Reg Gass - Munroe Lindsay, DeMers, Walter McKenzie.4 I went to service in our YMCA later with some of the patients in the Ward then Blanchard came & we went to dinner at the Burgoine. 159

WAR DIARY

F E B R U A R Y 12 I with Stephie went up to the Camp & to the orderly room of the 85th where I met some more of their officers Major Miller, Colonel Finney & one or two others. Blanchard got pass & came out to dinner with us. The English OC of the Camp told me "this is the finest body of men that have been in this camp for many a day." They certainly are a splendid looking regiment. Blanchard spent about a hour with me in my room before going back to camp F E B R U A R Y 13 Heard at noon today that the 85th have left for the front. Am going on night duty in Ward D tonight. FEBRUARY 1 4 — 2 O NO ENTRIES

FEBRUARY 2 1 A shoulder case, Cook, had a haemorrhage today. A very sick boy tonight but such a good patient. FEBRUARY 22 B.A.M & Knighty & their party from Moore Barracks came through today on their way to Troyes. They came to us for tea, then we walked back to the Louvre with them afterward. Two amputation cases on the DI list one Paddy — & one very young English boy Holland.5 F E B R U A R Y 23 Ruth & I went down to the Louvre again this morning but our friends had gone by an early train. We had breakfast at the Louvre. Paddy very delirious sang & called out all night. Holland also very very ill. F E B R U A R Y 24 Blanchard writes that the 85th are quartered in an old Chateau five miles behind the front line & have been sending working parties up to the trenches. He was out one night when they had two casualties.

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F E B R U A R Y 2 5 -26 NO ENTRIES

FEBRUARY 27

A lovely sunshiny morning. Ran down into the Valley before going to bed, Ellen Carpenter & I to see how the spring is progressing. Signs are very few - the trickling of the water down the slopes 8c the noise of the little brook being the chief signs spring is later than last year in coming due I suppose to the recent cold weather. Anti-aircraft guns to the north while we were out. F E B R U A R Y 28

I have been receiving large convoys of patients every night of late & the Ward has been very heavy & the work difficult. The papers tell us that on a long line of front near Beaupaume [Bapaume] the enemy is retiring. MARCH 1

A convoy of 55 came into D last night. All Australians from Beaupaume where the Germans are retiring. Such bad bad wounds. My heart aches for these poor lads so far from their home. Five shot through the chest, one arm blown off. One spine case paralyzed. One fractured pelvis. One pair of trench feet so bad that both feet will have to come off & many other agonizing wounds. MARCH 2

Day, the Spine & pelvis case in very bad condition. MARCH 3

Went down the Valley with Ellen Carpenter this morning, crept under the thick hedge & into the old Chateau grounds. Paddy had a transfusion today. MARCH 4

Found some snow drops in our little wood this morning. Paddy greatly improved & has regained his reason

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MARCH 5

A letter from BA tonight. They are in Troyes. A huge convoy today & the ward full of sick patients with very bad wounds MARCH 6 A frightful wind storm today & very cold. MARCH 7 A winter's day. Very windy & cold. MARCH 8 - 10 NO ENTRIES M A R C H 11 A wonderful spring morning. I had the bycicles pumped up by Merrett, our Australian night orderly & Miss Eastwood & I went out for a ride before going to bed, down the Calais road through Wimille to the Wimereux station & back by La Poterie & the monument. MARCH 12 Orders to clear the hospital in preparation for some special action. Rumour says Canadian Casualties in the 4th division have been heavy & that a big convoy of Canadians have come to Etaples. We have heard of none in Boulogne. News today that Baghdad has been taken.7 MARCH 13 Off night duty. Went into town & had a hair wash. Ruth went on leave to England. M A R C H 14 Went for a little ride with Stephie before going on duty. Rather muddy but otherwise a very nice outing M A R C H 15 Death of Duchess of Connaught in England. MARCH 16 Rumours today of a revolution in Russia.8

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M A R C H 17

Definite news of a revolution in Russia reached us today. The people at last are demanding freedom from the many trials which for years they have borne. M A R C H 18

The Russians have formed a government & peace in St Petersburg is slowly being restored. The blood shed has been comparatively small. The Czar has abdigated & his brothers have joined the people.9 M A R C H 19

The Czar is a prisoner, as is also his family - the political German spies which infested his court are also in the hands of the people. The new Government has been recognized by the Allies MARCH 2O -21 NO ENTRIES MARCH 22

The McGill Battery has arrived in Boulogne. They are at St Martins Camp.10 M A R C H 23 NO ENTRY

MARCH 24 Went to dinner at the Burgoine with Sara McN & Brooke & Terrance McDermot. MARCH 25 Arnfield an up patient today developed Spinal Meni[n]gitis (Acute Cerebro) in our Ward - Such a tragedy a young married man with two small children. The ward is under orders for disinfection & we are all under observation. Whit & I rode with Marjorie Ross down to No 14 Stationary hospital to enquire after Arnfield this evening M A R C H 26

Whit & I were unable to accept an invitation to hear the new orchestra of CC patients at No 7 CC C this afternoon but the Matron and Mrs Hutchison went & took our apologies to our patients who were anxious for us to go. 163

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Foxy Reid our new MO in a hut in which we are isolated at present during the cleaning of D. M A R C H 27

Ruth came back today I went down with W[h]itney to meet her but we missed the boat so she came up to the hospital before us. Miss McMurrich and her friend Miss Warner also came to us tonight on their way through for leave. M A R C H 28

Miss Whitney went today for five days leave to see her uncle who is ill in England. M A R C H 29 NO ENTRY

M A R C H 3O

Arnfield is no better our orderly went down to enquire today MARCH 31 — A P R I L 1 NO ENTRIES APRIL 2 Moved back to ward D now thoroughly cleaned: & ready to receive a convoy. A windy cold winter's day with snow & rain APRIL 3 NO ENTRY

APRIL 4

A large convoy of wounded to D. APRIL 5 NO ENTRY

APRIL 6

Rumours of a great attack at Vimy Ridge near Arras1 * APRIL 7 NO ENTRY

APRIL 8

Early service .. 6.30. APRIL 9 Late this pm the news came, that Vimy Ridge has been taken by the Canadians Miss McN & I are alone on the ward 164

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A P R I L 1O

This morning hundreds of Canadian wounded admitted, so tired, but the majority with only slighter wounds In D - we received over one hundred 8c fifty & had stretchers & mattresses on the floor for the lighter cases. APRIL 1 1

We received the stretcher cases from Vimy this morning - many sick men Over 100 of yesterdays walkers went to Eng[land] - Munroe Lindsay admitted to Ward W & Ralph Proctor of the 85th to L. The 85th on the gth at 6 PM went over in support to attack strong positions not captured in the first advance. A P R I L 12

We are still very busy & the wounded are being admitted to Ward D daily - Many 85th men but most of them of D Co [mpany]. I can get no news of Blanchard though C & D Co both went over without a barrage on the evening of the gth. Munroe said he last saw Blanchard on the eve of the gth as they were filing down the tunnel A P R I L 13

I went this evening to write some letters for Ralph Proctor who is shot through the chest & spine & is in serious condition. He also asked me to send a cable to his father — A P R I L 14 NO ENTRY

APRIL 15 AND A P R I L 16

The casualties though reported as small from last week's action have simply filled all the hospitals hereabouts to over flowing. Robert O'Callahan who is at an English hospital in Wimereux says he never saw worse wounds than those they have & some of ours are heart breaking - Gas gangrene is very prevalent & we have lost several cases. We have had no hours off for a week Be have been on duty late at night & are beginning to feel the effects of the extra work.

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A P R I L 17

Ralph Proctor is no better & is going to have an operation for an empyema tomorrow APRIL 18 Laurie ! A P R I L 19 NO ENTRY

A P R I L 2O

A letter from Gerald this morning in which he says "Blanchard is gone, he was killed on the gth I think" I cannot believe it. APRIL 2 1 NO ENTRY

A P R I L 22

The Colonel received a telegram for me from headquarters. It reads "L/Cpl B.V. Gass killed in action April gth" I also heard today that Laurie died of wounds in a field ambulance hospital. I thought that Laurie at least with his big guns was safe - but no one is safe these days - none of our boys12 A P R I L 23

Boysie Woods brought me word that a Lt McCrae of the 4th Amm [unition] Park had gone to see Laurie before he died — I am glad for his poor Mother's sake. No further news of Blanchard - Saw a boy from the 85th in the Ward yesterday & he knew B.V. & knew also he was reported killed but no more (Two months to practice that in which with a years and a half s training he had become proficient !) A P R I L 24

Nancy Morewood has developed Diphtheria & gone to No 14 Stationary hospital. A P R I L 25

Had a half day off duty & for the first part went to see Proctor & write some letters for him. Later dug in my garden for a while then went for a walk to L'Abbe Moulin with Ruth & Miss Eastwood & Miss Bliss 166

1917

A P R I L 26 - M A Y 3

NO ENTRIES MAY 4 Had letters today from Maj [or] Ralston telling me of the last day of B.V. our Happy Warrior Be from Lieut. McRae telling me of Laurie's last day on earth. MAY 5 - 2 3 NO ENTRIES13 MAY 24 Bycicled with Helen Matthew & Ruth out to Wierre Effroy & the Holy Well. Had a picnic tea at the Souverin Moulin on the way back

MAY 25 - 27

NO ENTRIES MAY 28 A letter from Cyril today says "It is heart breaking to see Mother & Father broken down but time is a great healer & nothing can stop its progress" The remark is so typical of old "wise head." MAY 29 -3O NO ENTRIES MAY 31 A letter today from Mrs Proctor says that Ralph's brother Athol has been killed Father's letter too tells me of Ralph Read's death. He was a lieut in the 85th. JUNE 1 NO ENTRY JUNE 2

Took our tea & [Private John] Valentine down into the fields back of No 7 CC this afternoon Miss Whitney Miss McNaughton & I. JUNE 3 NO ENTRY

JUNE 4 Took our tea out to L'Abbe Moulin. Madam boiled water & gave us the milk. Had our tea table down by the old moss covered mill wheel. 167

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JUNE 5

Night duty tonight in Ward D. JUNE 6 NO ENTRY

JUNE 7

Tonight's report says Messines has been taken JUNE 8

Messines - Wytschaete & Oostaverne in the hands of the British. A great victory. The wounded from these places have been coming in all day The Messines Ridge is in British Hands after many vain attempts in the past on our part to get it The Germans have lost it now, let us hope forever. By this victory part of the Salient of Ypres is considerably straightened NZ, Irish & English took part in the attack^ JUNE 9 - 13 NO ENTRIES

J U N E 14

Tonight with his full kit on his back, leaving his stripes on our desk Valentine left us for the 42 Batt. A good boy he has done good work for us - but has been dissatisfied with the injustice shown to him by those in authority We are all very very sorry to see him go.15 JUNE 15

Tonight we heard that the recent Zeppelin raid which distroyed a business street in Folkstone had also killed three hundred Canadian Soldiers in that district. JUNE 16

Some Canadian soldiers were killed in the Folkestone raid but not 300 as reported. J U N E 17 - 18 NO ENTRIES

J U N E 19

Ward D has been very heavy so far this month. Such sick sick men & many of them. A large percentage are Australians & New Zealanders 168

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J U N E 2O NO ENTRY

J U N E 21 Written in a sister's autograph album & original. Oh sister in those radiant wards, where God Your recompense will give, May I not miss That faithful fellowship as when I trod A bruised and battered casualty in this ! J U N E 22 The King of Greece has abdicated in favour of his second son Alexander. J U N E 23 The Ward has grown light at last. I have very few patients but do not sleep well - all day long I dream - frightful dreams, in most of which Blanchard comes in difficulty & danger J U N E 24

Tonight Blanch came in to say Good Bye. He expects to leave the Base tomorrow on his way to his Regt. He is such a fine lad back to danger and perhaps death - with all his possibilities he may go into the far country to meet there the thosands of other young lads - with equal promise - who have gone before him J U N E 25 Capt Hepburn came in tonight & talked at length of his life in the trenches. Cpl Fry on his kit leave also came - He is to be a lieutenant in the 42nd We are not busy. J U N E 26 - J u i , Y 2 NO ENTRIES

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JULY 3

Queen Mary visited the hospital today A severe haemorrhage in the Ward tonight. Russians have had a great victory after months of inaction Many prisoners taken. JULY 4 - 1 1 NO ENTRIES

J U L Y 12

Gerald came today Such a great pleasure In afternoon We went down to the Wimereau shore & sat by the sea on a hill side to talk Tea in Wimereau16 JULY 13 Bycicled with Gerald and Stevie out to Souverin Moulin Sat down by the brook all afternoon & had dinner at the Souverein M. Estaminet A lovely day17 JULY 14 Picnic with Sara & Miss Burt & Gerald down in the field. We all enjoyed it very much JULY 1 5 Took Gerald out for a change to La Portel. Sat on the beach & watched the people all afternoon. I went in bathing. JULY 16 NO ENTRY

JULY 1 7

Went out to La Portal for a bath & with Marjorie & Gerald in the afternoon & took tea & had it on the beach afterwards. JULY 18 Sara & Fitzie & I were Gerald's guests for dinner at his billets tonight. Played bridge afterwards JULY 19 Had a picnic in the fields this afternoon with Ruth & Stevie & Cooper & Gerald. JULY 2O Gerald & I had dinner tonight with Marjorie & Sara at the Bourgoine. Played Bridge afterwards. 170

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Clare and Gerald Gass, July 1917

JULY 2 1

Gerald left tonight for his train which goes out at 4 am. I think he has enjoyed his holiday & I have certainly enjoyed having him here. J U L Y 22 — A U G U S T 21 NO ENTRIES AUGUST 22 Left Boulogne 8 PM. Reached London 11 pm A U G U S T 23 Out shopping in Am in the now familiar London streets. Went to see General Post at the Hay Market theatre in the evening Saw Beverane twice once in the Bank & once in the street A U G U S T 24 Shopped in AM. Lunch at Lullus on Regent St Madam Toussaud's in the afternoon. 171

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"The Maid of the Mountains" in the evening at Daly's. Saw Molly unexpectedly in the street - She is on her way to a Convalescent home. Also saw Jessie Sedgewick on her way home to Canada AUGUST 25

Left 9.30 Euston Station for Scotland, came through Rugby to Manchester to Lancaster & Carlisle:- through Gretna Green Goat Bridge Stirling Bridge of Allen [Allan], Auchterarder (of Cameron fame) to Perth. Spent night at Perth AUGUST 26

Left P[erth]. 9.45 for Inverness The country so beautiful through Dunkeld Pitlochry & Blair Atholl - mountains thickly wooded with a shallow rushing river over a rocky bed at their foot & in amongst the trees pretty house with gardens in full bloom After Blair Atholl the hills become barren: & covered with the lovely purple heather without a tree - sheep dotted - lonely shepherds huts Inverness stayed Station Hotel 2.45 PM AUGUST 2 7

Saw the town & outskirts & bought one or two souvenirs in the shops of the Capital of the Highlands. Left by boat 3.30 for Fort Agustus [Augustus]. through the locks first then on into Loch Ness a beautiful lake. Castle Urquhart at its more beautiful part - Gaelic shepherds with their dogs on the boat - Rainy after leaving Inv & rained at intervals all afternoon Sun came out as we entered Fort Agustus - bay. Fort A in a sheltered valley surrounded by mountains very lovely. A Benedictine monastery occupies sight of old fort. AUGUST 28

Train to Fort William - passed Aberchalder & Loch Oich to Invergarry & the old castle ruin then Loch Lochy & the mountains grow higher & more stern as we go on. so barren, so vivid with their covering of purple - & the purple mists around their peaks - Then the river Spean & Lochy to Fort William - Walked into Glen Nevis & viewed that stern old giant - but did not have 172

1917

time to climb it. Lunch at Highland, then left by Spean Bridge & Tulloch for Loch Lomond. At Tulloch the rushing highland rivers are the most beautiful I have seen. To our right near Rannock [Rannoch] the mountains of Glencoe can be seen. Passed Moor of Rannock of Kidnapped after which though the mountains are still high they loose something of their sternness. Till happier Tarbet comes in view.18 AUGUST 29 Bonnie Bank of Loch Lomond In the morning went for a long walk through pretty lanes by Lake side. 1.30 PM took boat to Inversnaid a lovely spot, there from 2-5.15 walked out to Rob Roy's cave. Such a rocky wooded shore here rises from the lake. Several overhanging rocks form caves in the district. Saw two nice Canadian boys from 5th Div[ision] on leave — also seeing Rob Roy's country. Met two Canadian officers later in pm who were also at the cave.19 The journey down Loch Lomond was lovely. Reach Balloch at sunset. AUGUST 3O Left Balloch 8.40 for Sterling [Stirling]. Took taxi to castle. Castle very interesting & beautiful. On to Callander later (10.42 am). Arrived 11.20 & took coach immediately for Trossac[h]s. A beautiful day, passed Loch Vennachar [Venachar] - Achray & Brig of Turk & on to Loch Katrine around which the country is very very lovely. "Where twines the path in shadow hue, round many a rocky piramid." Lunch at Trossach Hotel. Back to Callander in pm. Train to Edinburg[h] in evening. The Highland cattle in Trossach very nice looking. AUGUST 31 Royal British Hotel Edinburgh Lovely airy open city filled with history & interest. Mary Stuart the most picturesque figure of all. We went up to Calton Hill in am. where a funny old guide told us many things about the city. By train to Melrose in the afternoon Taxi to Melrose Abbey 173

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Abbotsford Dryburg[h] Abbey. Went through Edinburgh castle also in am also saw St Giles Cathedral and onsite shops SEPTEMBER l

Started early for High St Cannon Gate & Holyrood. The Cannon gate is the most fascinating old street I have ever been in. The sight seeing of this morning is a long ago wish realized - Marys rooms - the old chapel ruin — the street & grounds so often travelled by the Stuart Queen, John Knox's house etc. Went to Forth Bridge in pm by motor bus. British Men of War everywhere - the place thronged with sailor boys. SEPTEMBER 2

Took bus to Roslin[Rosslyn] Castle went to morning service in the loveliest chapel I have seen. Afterwards explored the ruin of the old feudal castle - parts of which are intact. Lunch at Roslin. Went for car ride in pm in Edinburgh & a walk. Left i o pm for London. Miserable night in train without a sleeper SEPTEMBER 3

Slept for short time in am. Met Molly. Saw the Matron. I went shopping & to tea with R.O. Molly & Sara & I went to see "Inside the lines" at the Adelphi theatre in pm SEPTEMBER 4

Went to Bank in Am & shopping afterwards. To see "The Invisible Foe" at the Savoy in pm HB Irving & Fay Compton a thoroughly enjoyable play — though of a serious character. Fay Compton is very beautiful — SEPTEMBER 5

An air raid in our immediate district last night. Bourne & Rolling [s] worth [Department Store], the Charing Cross Hospital & parts of Thames embankment bombed. & considerable damage done - Our Hotel was all awake & downstairs & out side. - I slept through most of it as I was tired. Back to France in PM. SEPTEMBER 6

Arrived Boulogne 6 pm They had a bad air raid here tuesday night also Several houses on the Rue de Calais smashed to pieces - & all the upper part of 174

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the Rue de la Paix is in ruins - As it was so near the Hospital the shrapnel came down like hail on the roofs of the huts but no one was hurt here - Several of the towns people were killed & many injured. SEPTEMBER 7 - 27 NO ENTRIES S E P T E M B E R 28 AND S E P T E M B E R 29

We have had many air raids this month. Two new anti air craft guns have been placed in the field to the left of Naps, monument & these with the help of the old ones have driven the enemy away. We had however two casualties from St Martins Camp both privates one killed & one badly injured during one raid & have also had several slight wounds from stray shrapnel most of these in No 7 CC. SEPTEMBER 3O - O C T O B E R 14 NO ENTRIES OCTOBER 15

Our dear boy's birthday [brother Blanchard] He would have been nineteen today. OCTOBER 16 - 2 6 NO ENTRIES

O C T O B E R 27

Fathers letter tonight tells of a very serious operation for Cyril, from what I can understand it is appendicitis with perforation & peritonitus Poor laddie - surely he has suffered enough. Went with Ruth to hear the orchestra at the Central YMCA tonight O C T O B E R 28

Valentine is here today. He had with [him] several others of his platoon been specially recommended given a stripe & ten days leave.20 He is a good boy & was very glad to see Ward D again. O C T O B E R 29

The news that Italy has lost thousands of men & hundreds of guns to the Austrians is very startling. I cannot see when or where the awful war is going to end.21 175

One of the essential qualities of a nurse is to be always pleasant. To show one is in a scot is to have a depressing effect on the patients To have a pleasant expression has the opposite effect.

For Miss C. Gass never to have cause for any but a pleasant expression, is the sincere wish of Cpl. P. Huthnance 54th Batt. A.I.F.

WAR D I A R Y

OCTOBER 3O NO ENTRY

OCTOBER 3 1 News came this am that I am to leave together with Mrs Giffin for No 2 Canadian CCS [Casualty Clearing Station] early tomorrow morning. Went up to St Martins Camp for our gas masks with Miss Hoerner in the afternoon. Ruth had half day & helped me to pack. Went over to Red Cross Hut for an hour this evening to see the fancy dresses NOVEMBER 1

Left No 3 at 8.30 am, Ruth came to station to see us off. Arrived at Calais at 11 am but had to wait there as our luggage had not come. Left 6.45 with luggage for Hazebrooke [Hazebrouck] arrived 11.30 pm. RTO [Railway Transport Officer] asked us to wait in his office where he made tea for us & we had supper from Miss Ross' box of sandwitches & cake Ambulances arrived 2.30 am on to the frontier through a driving rain. Arrived No 2 at 3.30 am. 22 NOVEMBER 2 Went on duty at noon. We are living in a marquee from which Whit[ney] & G. De Cou are leaving for England. Whit looks wretchedly! This country is flat & uninteresting at first sight - but the traffic of troops is tremendous. NOVEMBER 3 Am to go on night duty tonight as a Supply. NOVEMBER 4 Had quite a busy night in the "gas" tents most of time. Such sick sick men from the recent gas attacks The Canadians have recently come up to Ypres from Lens so I hope to see Gerald NOVEMBER 5

This has been a dreadful time at Pas[sc]hendael[e] & our Can. boys have done wonderful feats of endurance & fighting against 178

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No. 2 Canadian Casualty Clearing Station

almost impossible odds.23 NOVEMBER 6 AND NOVEMBER 7 Spent the morning with Drake - a lovely morning - "lorry hopping" - through Monts des Cats [Mont-des-Cats], Westoulte & Locre to Kemmel - At Kemmel which is a picturesque village in ruins we saw the grass grow in trenches of last spring's activities still intact but overgrown with the summer's greenness. Went into the shattered Church in the village, then on up the hill to the observatory — on Kemmel Hill — Here we found two NZ sisters who shared their breakfast of sandwitches & their field glasses with us. Through the glasses the Messines Ridge & the 179

WAR DIARY

Wytschaete Ridge the scenes of the early summer's fierce fighting can be seen & on the left Dickiebush [Dickebusch] Lake & beyond that Ypres The day was clear and sunshiny Be I enjoyed the outing. Kemmel Hill is one network of old trenches & dug outs still used for observation purposes. NOVEMBER 8

I hear Miss Hoerner arrived at No 3 today. NOVEMBER 9 NO ENTRY

N O V E M B E R 1O

"Hun" planes came over tonight & dropped bombs but I have not yet heard of damage done. Col McLean the OC of No i CCS was killed several days ago near Dunkirk by a bomb. There were other casualties there as well. NOVEMBER 1 1

Walked in to Pop[eringhe] this morning before I went to bed this town has been badly shelled at times & many of the houses though occupied again have the marks upon them Little restoration has been made. Rode home in a lorry NOVEMBER

12

Miss Hoerner came over to tea this pm. I escorted her part of the way back. At 6 pm went to a concert by "the Maple Leaf party" It belongs to the 4th Div (Canadians) & is such a clever performance. Such good voices. NOVEMBER

13

Our bombardment today & last night has been tremendous; It shakes our huts & is continuous. Col Davis leaves this hospital today. Col Brown is the new O.C. I go to the Officers Ward tonight. Miss Holland comes off. N O V E M B E R 14

Walked to Boeschepe this morning with one of the English sisters attached here before we went to bed. The morning was lovely for this time of year & though the mud was thick I enjoyed the 180

1917

Maple Leaf concert party

walk very much. We came back on a lorry. N O V E M B E R 15

Went to Bailleul this morning with Miss Drake & Miss Regan Walked part of the way & rode on lorries the rest Went into the old church there & into a few shops. The town was heavily shelled last week. Some casualties but not much destruction of property. The church & old belfry tower are intact Miss Woods Capt McKim & Capt Yates came up tonight to take the place of Capt Dixon, Miss Davies and their team. N O V E M B E R 16

Such a heavy bombardment from our guns this morning which probably means our men will attack again. Rumour says we have cut off 4 divisions of Germans by our heavy shell fire the last few days. Fire directed behind the enemy lines to cut off their retreat.

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N O V E M B E R 17

Terance MacDermot 8c his friend Clark came down yesterday to see me. Brooke could not come. N O V E M B E R 18

The guns along the front are quiet once more. That awful continuous thunder has ceased for the time being. An occasional explosing where some ammunition dump has been bombed is all that disturbs the quiet & in the night the continuous flares along the horizon the only sign of warfare. NOVEMBER 19 -22 NO ENTRIES

N O V E M B E R 23

Terrance MacDermot came again today. Alone this time. I took him over to No 3 to tea, where I think he quite enjoyed the afternoon. Miss Hoerner asked him to play which he did. He plays wonderfully well. N O V E M B E R 24

Valentine came tonight "a bruised and battered casualty" with a piece of shrapnel in his face & his face very much swollen. He was on his way from an English CCS back to his regiment. N O V E M B E R 25 NO ENTRY

N O V E M B E R 26

The Wards have been very quiet of late with little doing on this front though persistant rumours of the Germans massing for an attack are rife NOVEMBER 27

News of a wonderful British Victory near Cambrai. thousands of prisoners including 182 officers & many guns. Tanks &: cavalry went over without a barrage in a surprise attack. News from Italy still none too good. Still the Italian line is beginning to be strengthened.24 In Palestine the British troops are three miles from Jerusalem.

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N O V E M B E R 28

The Tsar's second daughter Tatiana has escaped from Russia via Japan & is on her way to USA. NOVEMBER 29 Mrs G[iffin] went in to Pop this morning while I went with Drake & the Padre to Hazebrooke & Aire in the ambulance for the Laundry & other errands for the Mess. Aire is a quaint little town with its Canal & Red & barges & other boats. The church is very fine. Hazebrooke is quite a little town. The Padre stooped at Marie Salad's & a grocers there. About 30 Km to Aire. N O V E M B E R 3O The Germans have been shelling Poperinghe heavily since noon yesterday. Also the whole road from Ypres to Pop. making it impossible to get troops in or out. There are also shells being dropped this side of Pop near the Cross Roads beyond No 3 CCS. where the railway runs. Many Casualties were brought in from Vlamerbughe in the afternoon & last night. The men say there have been direct hits on the Pop station. DECEMBER 1 NO ENTRY

DECEMBER 2 A Report today of a German counter attack at Cambrai successful with great losses on our side i ooo men & 2 Batteries so the papers say. Our poor lads ! DECEMBER 3 "Fritz" has been overhead all night tonight. There is bright moonlight & wind blown clouds which hide the planes from our anti air craft guns About i o bombs have been in the direction of the Air dromes near Proven. Later I have got several cases in from the bombs which were dropped. They fell in a camp near Pop. where the Midland Regt are billetted 183

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DECEMBER 4

Air ships have been over all night tonight probably observing for more shelling. DECEMBER 5

Today about noon the Germans began to shell the Cross roads again one shell smashed the Estaminet at the corner into bits & several Belgians & soldiers were impaled there. Another shell burst just outside No g's Mess Hut. But fortunately no one was hurt. The sisters were all at lunch. Hallie Carman just coming up to lunch was very near & throw her out on the ground. She is unhurt. I was asleep when the shelling began but the whir of the first shell overhead awakened me. The explosions shook the ground. I voted for the Union Government in Canada - this am.25 DECEMBER 6

A heavy bombardment from our guns began about 2 am this morning - Enemy planes have been over head all night. I though [t] I saw one brought down in the distance but am not sure. Three 12" shells whistled over the hospital about 6 am: one went directly over Ward H. where Mrs G is night nurse - broke the telephone wires at the tracks & exploded in the field beyond - about i oo yds away. No damage done but a great shell hole in the field DECEMBER 7

Fathers letter tonight brings the sad news that [cousin] Lou Miller who has been missing since May has been located in an Insane Hosp from Shell Shock. DECEMBER 8 NO ENTRY DECEMBER 9

The ruling party at the moment in Russia have brought about an armistice to consider peace with Germany, which from all appearances will come to nothing. The military Faction under Kaledin & Korniloff are rebelling & have already interfering with the carriage of the wheat crop 184

1917

from Siberia26 Today the news of the most colossal disaster of the war reach [ed] us. Halifax is destroyed from the explosion of an ammunition ship in the harbour2 7 DECEMBER 10 German planes have been over head all day with our planes engaged in battle & bombs were dropped in the distance In the evening we had warning for "gas" attack preparations but nothing came of it. The casualties in Hfalifax] are estimated at 2000 dead & 8000 injured DECEMBER 11 A heavy bombardment from our guns is in progress tonight Thousands (Twenty) people in Halifax are destitute & the loss of Property estimated at £4,000,000 As usual the USA is ready immediately with offers of help & trains of nurses doctors & supplies, trained engineers & other workmen are already in Halifax & at work. Besides our own local workers who are already there. DECEMBER 12 Giffm & I went "Lorry Hopping" this am and finally arrived at St Omer [Saint-Omer] at 12.30 Wandered around the town till 3 pm. then went to the traffic sentry to get a Lorrie back finally got an Ambulance to Cassel & from there a lorrie belonging to Signals to Boeschepe & home. We were very cold tired &: sleepy but got back in time for dinner. DECEMBER 13 Hazebrooke has been heavily shelled both yesterday & today about one hundred shells each day - the town is badly destroyed Sc there are many casualties. On duty in Ward D today. DECEMBER 14 Officers Ward in PM.

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D E C E M B E R 15

Officers Ward all day. DECEMBER 16 Had a day off duty & stayed in bed all day. It is bitterly cold Had such a nice bunch of Canadian letters in the evening - also one from Gerald & a snap taken in Paris. He had his leave in Paris & Lyon - & enjoyed it very much. DECEMBER 17 On duty in the Officers Ward. DECEMBER 18 -23 NO ENTRIES D E C E M B E R 24

A wonderful hoarfrost over trees & earth this morning. The Country is like Fairy land. A little concert given by the men of the Unit in the evening after which the Christmas stocking [s] were given out to them & to the light duty patients after which we distributed the stockings to the different wards DECEMBER 25 Early service at 6.30 am. DECEMBER 26 -31 NO ENTRIES

186

T H E W A R D I A R Y O F C L A R E OASS

1918 JANUARY

The Cup of War Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of ? And they say unto him: We are able.1 1 The Huns watched the old year out with a little air raid here The anti air craft were very active for about an hour 1 1.30 PM to i .30. A quiet day in the WTard today Went to No 3 to dinner JANUARY 2 We are very busy with die staff lacking three sisters & no hope of their being replaced till there is some readjustment at headquarters of Nursing Affairs in France. There are only twelve of us here & the hospital is full all the time. JANUARY

JANUARY 3

It is bitterly cold with about 2" of snow on the ground except on the roads where the lorries and ambulances have long since worked the two ingredients - snow & mud into a smooth paste JANUARY 4 - 8 NO ENTRIES

WAR D I A R Y

Staff, No. 2 Canadian Casualty Clearing Station

JANUARY 9 Night duty in the Officer's Ward. J A N U A R Y 10 — 3O NO ENTRIES J A N U A R Y 31 Off night duty Went with the Ambulance to Dunkirk. The road after Berque [Berques] is reached is beautiful - running as it does along the bank of the Canal which is at present used a great deal for hospital Barges. Berque itself is the quaintest little town I have seen in France - a walled town with its Canal running through & its moates intact. 188

1918

FEBRUARY 1 Went in the Ambulance to Boulogne today with Mrs G & Miss J Johnson - the latter going on leave. FEBRUARY 2 - 3 NO ENTRIES FEBRUARY 4 Ward D this morning FEBRUARY 5 - MARCH 8 NO ENTRIES

MARCH 9

On night duty in Ward D. Howel & Barker - night orderlies. MARCH 1O- 14 NO ENTRIES

MARCH 15

There has been shelling in the neighbourhood for the last week past nothing coming in near at hand but quite distincdy heard & felt. MARCH 16

Rumour says messages have been dropped from Hun planes warning civilians to leave Poperhinge as it will be heavily shelled also the districts surrounding MARCH 1 7

Shells dropped on the Pop - Abe[e]le road tonight & several in the field behind No 3 & 17*5 Sister quarters - some of my patients were very nervous & frightened. M A R C H 18

Kemmel Hill in the Ambulance this morning for a birthday outing but the district was being shelled so we did not stay long on the top of the Hill The destroyed village is full of Australians. Shells are still coming into the field behind 3 & 17 - but I slept well today in spite of the noise being tired.2 M A R C H 19

Last night continuous shelling of our camp began about 9 pm. Some fell in the field as before 8c others in 17 & lo's lines near the brook the soft mud saving casualties. The sisters spent the 189

WAR D I A R Y

night in our Mess which is across the back road. All patients evacuated this morning & we were called at noon & bundled off to St Omer in a hurry. M A R C H 2O

St Omer - In the empty wing of the old Convent used by the Sisters of No 10 Station [ary] as Nurses Home. It is very cold & damp in our wing but otherwise we are alright although we have only the bare necessities of clothing with us. There was an air raid here tonight. MARCH 2 l

The great German offensive begins News today says the Germans have broken through at Bullicourt [Bullecourt] & surgical teams are being sent out. Miss Johnson of our party Be Ellen Carpenter from 3 went off in the night. Capt Beggs & Aikenhead from 2 Maj Scrimger & Capt Lisle from 3. The Germans have also attacked Dunkirk from the sea 8c air without success.3 M A R C H 22

Hazebrooke is being heavily shelled. Our lines at Remy are still getting shells & the Pop road is badly destroyed. The Colonel brought news & letters today. Other hospitals in the neighbourhood are over crowded & our men have gone to them. Miss Magnus went off on a team tonight to the Bullicourt district. Another air raid here — a small boy badly wounded. One sister killed by shell at 58 CCS & several wounded M A R C H 23

Hazebrooke has been heavily shelled again & is now practically deserted. Pop & Abeele are also suffering Miss Boultbee went back to No 2 today to see about getting our luggage but although they brought the equipment for some of the Sisters the Col did not send either Mrs G's or mine thinking he will be able to open up in the near future. M A R C H 24

The war news today is very discouraging. Peronne &; St Quintan [Saint-Quentin] have been captured by the Germans & 25000 190

1918

prisoners & 400 guns have been taken The Germans seem to be making a desperate effort all along the line Long distance shelling of towns that have escaped for months has begun in every sector. M A R C H 25

The Sisters from two more English CCS's shelled out are arriving here today & two [CCSs] on the Peronne front have been captured with all their personelle so rumour says.4 MARCH 26 - 2 7 NO ENTRIES M A R C H 28

Returned to No 2 Can CCS today. The Wards have all been cleaned & the walls stained & they look awfully well. I return to Ward D in the afternoon where five very sick patients await me. Barrie has been with them during our absence M A R C H 29

Abeele as we passed through yesterday is absolutely deserted. All civilians are gone & there are no signs of military activity M A R C H 3O NO ENTRY

M A R C H 31 [Easter Sunday] Went for a walk by the brook today & picked such pretty yellow blossoms — cowslips daisies & anemones APRIL 1 NO ENTRY

APRIL 2

Our Ward is Comfortably busy. Barrie & Millard[?] are there. APRIL 3 AND APRIL 4 AND APRIL 5 The [German] advance on the Somme is to us who know nothing of the inner plans — an appalling disaster. Albert has fallen & the Huns are threatening Arras - Capt Beggs & Miss Johnson, Capt McKendrick & Miss Magnus & their teams have gone back with the retreat. It is said that half of all our rolling stock has been captured. Miss 191

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Clare Gass, spring 1918

Johnson specially & Ellen Carpenter who went on a team from No 3 CCS have had thrilling experiences. Capt Aikenhead & Capt Beggs after carrying stretchers for hours evacuating the patients, marched 30 Km camping on the roadsides for sleep with the retreat, finally setting up a dressing station somewhere with Miss J's help in a henhouse APRIL 6

(This tale we learned later) It is said that their orderly Ray - went about among those dying patients they were obliged to leave behind & gave each in turn 1/2 gr Morphia at the risk of being himself being left behind & taken prisoner APRIL 7 NO ENTRY

192

1918

APRIL 8 Our Miss Young came today to No 2 CCS. APRIL 9 Miss Young came to ward D. Rumours of great activity at Armentiers & Messines A P R I L 1O Armentiers has fallen & the Germans marching on to Bailleul Estaires & Merville are taken Also Ploegsteert - The rush of Ambulances here is tremendous We are very busy. APRIL 11 The news is very discouraging - our men seem to have no support from the guns around Bailleul. The Huns are advancing rapidly APRIL 12 Our Ward is still very busy & the OR is working night & day. Some shelling in the neighbourhood tonight A P R I L 13 NO ENTRY

A P R I L 14 We were sent away at a half hours notice & arrived at No 13 CCS at Arneke [Arneke] on duty in pm. Giffin & I doing dressings for the walking wounded5 A P R I L 15 I have a little infection of my right thumb They are not busy here at present Walked into the village with Miss Young & Louise McLeod this pm. No news - no papers A P R I L 16 The British Matron &[in] Chief & Miss Ridley came today Went for a long country walk in pm. The paper says Bailleul is in flames Rumour says we have retaken some of our lost points -

193

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A P R I L 17

Conflicting rumours about the battle on this front The French seem to be taking over this part of the line. A french RTO came to Arneke today We are to join No 2 tomorrow A P R I L 18

We came by Ambulance to Esquelbecq this AM Our hospital tents are nearly all in place Some of our Sisters are quartered in billets in the village Eight of us are to go into a very dirty school room in the school house A P R I L 19

After cleaning two schoolrooms today & making them habitable we are told tonight we must move in the AM as French GHQ are coming here & must have these rooms There seems to be no place for us in town as the French are crowding in. A P R I L 2O

Moved this morning into different billets in the Village. Miss Young & Giffin & I are in a house together APRIL 2 1

The news is not at all reassuring. Rumour tonight says Kemmel Hill has been taken by the Huns. Went to church in the evening with Miss Young A P R I L 22

Kemmel Hill has been taken also the villages of Locre & La Clyte by the Huns. A P R I L 23

I am working each day at the equipping of the new line of tents which will correspond to the Post Operative Ward of our old hospital Ward D Line 5 A P R I L 24

The traffic through the village of Esquelbecq is tremendous both French & English - guns ASC [Army Service Corps], & troops. At night we cannot sleep for the shaking of the windows & the noise on the street

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A P R I L 25

Miss Young & Miss Boultbee & Miss Hegan left today to sail for Canada where they expect to be Matrons. APRIL 26 We received heavily today both French & English patients. So many many hundred. Miss Gee & I are alone on the Ward. We are very short of Sisters. Those who have gone have not yet been replaced. A P R I L 27 - M A Y 3 NO ENTRIES MAY 4

Our billets are not altogether satisfactory. Madam does not want us there & makes no scruples about saying so. The other houses are not so bad but they are filled with French officers MAY 5

Our old hospital site at Remy is knocked to pieces. Ward H. the mens dining room & the kitchens are no more. The Medical stores are smashed as is also the Estaminet at the Corner. MAY 6

I am very tired. Breakfast 7.30 & dinner at 8.30 at night with not a spare moment in between except the hurried lunch at noon & we have taken in steadily & very heavy cases this past week MAY 7

Fortunately the war news is better. The British line now seems to be holding firmly with its allies the French. Kemmel Hill is no man's land being so heavily shelled by both sides that no human being can exist there MAY 8 - 9 NO ENTRIES MAY 10

We have been very very busy for the last two weeks. Today however things are lighter.

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MAY 11-19 NO ENTRIES MAY 2O Went with Louise McLeod who is leaving the unit Giffin, Peggy Rose & Capt Streight to Boulogne today had a wonderful day & came back through most beautiful country in the moonlight. Had dinner with Capt Streight in town MAY 2 l

A dreadful air raid at Etaples Sunday night i ooo casualties rumoured 4 of whom are sisters.6 MAY 22 NO ENTRY

MAY 23

The Canadian Railway Troops are having a sports day tomorrow Barrie is preparing to enter the races MAY 24

A steady rain all day The sports were not held. I go on night duty in Line 5 Ward D tonight MAY 25

A heavy bombardment all along this front tonight MAY 26 - J U N E 6 NO ENTRIES JUNE 7

Came off night duty We moved in the morning from our billets in the village to a fine big room in the farmhouse near the hospital. Stayed up for a concert in the afternoon & went to bed early. JUNE 8

Went to Berges this pm. JUNE 9

Went to Recussitation Ward this morning. J U N E 10 - 1 1 NO ENTRIES

J U N E 12

Barries birthday today 196

1918

J U N E 13 - 2O NO ENTRIES JUNE 2 l

Back to Line 5. J U N E 22 - J U N E 28 NO ENTRIES J U N E 29 Left No 2 CCS for Boulogne & McGill J U N E 3O NO ENTRY

JULY l AND J U L Y 2

Pneumonia Hut for me An air raid of a severe nature last night. 8 bombs fell very near the hospital & 7 CC but no one was hurt only cows & horses in the field were killed. In Outreau a french gun & its crew were exterminated & about 40 casualties came in from the Henriville Camp JULY 3 - 4 NO ENTRIES

JULY 5

Etaples & Paris Plage today with Sara Mrs Giffin & Sally Walters Met Reg Gass also late in afternoon He has just returned from England where he has taken out his commission.7 JULY 6 News of the sinking of our Canadian Hosp Ship Lan-dovery Castle reached us today All the Sister [s] are lost8 JULY 7 NO ENTRY

JULY 8

Ruth returned from leave today. JULY 9 Miss Pearl Fraser, Miss Fortescue & Gladys Sare were all on board the Hospital Ship Llandovery Castle

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JULY 10 Col Elder left today to be consultant in the Rouen Area. With his leaving the McGill Unit is practically dissolved. The Vision Book & the gift cigarette box have been sent home. The McGill has come out of brackets 9 J U L Y 11-14 NO ENTRIES

JULY 15 A great German offensive in the South - successful - district near Soissons & Chateau Thierry [Chateau-Thierry] JULY 1 6 - 1 7 NO ENTRIES J U L Y 18

The tide seems to have turned & successes to the Allies are reported in different parts of the line JULY 19 - 24 NO ENTRIES J U L Y 25 The War news from the south is good. The French Americans & English are closing in on the Salient & the Germans have been obliged to retreat. In the North Meteron [Meteren] retaken by our troops10 JULY 26 Typhoid Inoculation today. JULY 27 - 28 NO ENTRIES J U L Y 29 The 3rd Div (Canadians) Concert Party gave us a performance in the Red Cross Hut tonight. Such an enjoyable evening. One of their girls is specially clever & they have some fine voices. J U L Y 3O The ist CanR Troop [Canadian Railway Troop] have started a bomb proof tunnel in our lines

198

1918

JULY 3 l

Col Drum the new OC came today. Mr Kingman of the General Hospital & Sir Wm Peterson are also here11 AUGUST l

A Hun plane over in AM. There was a very bad air raid 11.30 pm until i next morning Much loose shrapnel fell around our quarters & many patients came in from the town & the stretcher bearers camp down the road One bomb fell in our field by the Hindoo cemetary A U G U S T 2 AND AUGUST 3

The Hotel Derveux British headquarters is no more the result of an Incendiary Bomb the fire is still raging. St John's Church & the Palais de Justice fared only slightly better. With much injury to houses round about & many people killed. The Wards here are caring for many severe cases - soldiers only - some have died. A bomb also fell on the street just by the "Port des dunes". St Martins houses are badly shattered by a bomb & an aerial torpedo, but the casualties there are slight. No 2 Stationary at Outreau was shaken badly AUGUST 4

Miss S P Johnston came from 2 CCS today. She is attached here. AUGUST 5 - 6 NO ENTRIES

AUGUST 7 Effie Boulster & Miss MacFarlane went on leave today AUGUST 8 NO ENTRY

AUGUST 9

The French & Canadians have made a wonderful advance on the Somme.12 We are all so proud of our Canadian Soldiers

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AUGUST 1O The Canadian 4 divisions were moved in absolute secrecy down to the Somme under a pretence movement to the North. *3 AUGUST 1 1 NO ENTRY

AUGUST 12 Stevie has gone to No 4 CCS. AUGUST 13 A N D A U G U S T 14 A very bad air raid here last night. Many people killed over near the Wind Mill Camp, one poor lad from No i CC out without leave had his head blown off on the i CC road. A french officer was also killed there. Two of our Tunnelers were wounded by shrapnel from the bomb which fell by i CC's canteen. We were all in the new tunnels in spite of the gas & mud & water there14 AUGUST 15 An air raid warning tonight. Heavy fireing in the direction of Calais by [but] the raiders did not reach Boulogne. AUGUST 16 A cloudy night No raid Sara went to No i CCS today AUGUST 17 A rainy night The paper says there is heavy enemy fireing in the Mt Rouge [Le Rouge-mont] AUGUST 18 Restless rumours of all sorts afloat today. 3 Stationary going to Russia all three year War Nurses to be returned to Canada Sealed orders for several sisters etc etc. The Canadians & French are nearing Roye. AUGUST 1 9 — 2 1 NO ENTRIES AUGUST 22 The tunnel in our lines is finished today. The sisters gave the men of the Co a supper party in the Red + hut. The 4th Div 200

1918

Concert Party (Maple Leaves) entertained them afterwards. Jess Sedgewick & Pidgeon down from 2 CCS for the day with Forbes & Holland who are going to the Forrestry Corps hospital AUGUST 23 i st performance of the 4th Div Concert party for the unit AUGUST 24 A letter from Walter Blanch's sister today saying their boy has been missing since March 22nd Ruth goes to 3 CCS tomorrow. Also Marjorie Ross. AUGUST 25 Ruth left this AM. A very bad air raid in Boulogne & vacinity last night. A big fire from an incendiary bomb some where in the town lit up the whole sky with a different light to the bright moonlight We went to our tunnel for the first time. AUGUST 26 -3O NO ENTRIES

AUGUST 3l

Late tonight my orders for England arrived. SEPTEMBER l NO ENTRY

SEPTEMBER 2

Had a wonderful dinner at the corner Estaminet as Mrs Giffin's guest -John who returned to France today was there & Miss Hoerner & Hallie Mrs Austin Sallie Walters & Louise McGreer SEPTEMBER 3

Left Boulogne for London to report to the Matron in chief to await transport duty. A beautiful calm crossing & a comfortable journey in the train to London. Went to 66 Ennismore Gardens for the night15 SEPTEMBER 4

Met Molly at the Bank at 10.30 after having visited the Matron in Chiefs offices at 10 AM. Miss Cains told me to report again on Saturday. Molly & I went to Edith Leslie's wedding at 11 & the reception at 66 Ennismore Gardens after - Shopped in PM & 201

WAR DIARY

Farewell to Boulogne

went to "The Title" at the Royally in the PM. Mrs J B Gass' 4Oth anniversary [Laurie's mother] Saw Louise McLeod at the wedding SEPTEMBER 5 Came to Browne Hotel last night Went to the Bank early & shopping with Molly after. Tea at No i Hyde Park with Whit & Fitzie. Ellen Carpenter married today Say[w] Gertrude Elliot in "Eyes of Youth" at St James' Theatre tonight with Molly. SEPTEMBER 6 Molly left this AM for Hastings to see Brooke I went out to see The Purple Mask at the Lyric with Miss Galbraith tonight. Had tea with Whit at RumpleMayer's on St James' St this afternoon & walked out to the Park with her afterwards. 202

1918

SEPTEMBER 7

My letters contrary to instructions were sent on to Ennismore Gardens so I declined leave this morning before I got my invitation. Transferred to 66 Ennismore Gardens Lodge. Went to Mfatron] in Chiefs office this morning. Have been posted to Can Special Red Cross Hospital - Buxton - on Tuesday. Saw Capt McCusker at 133. He is a patient at Matlock Baths. Went with Nancy Morewood to see Nurse Benson at night (Marie Lohr) SEPTEMBER 8

Met Helen Cassels at Hyde Park St Pauls in AM with Nancy & Jackie. - tea at No i Hyde Park Place where Bobbie Morewood met us (Bobbie has a very badly injured rt eye) Dinner with them at the "Rende[z]vous" with them & a concert for troops at the Palace theatre afterwards (Beatrice Lillie). SEPTEMBER 9

Shopping all morning. Met Nancy & Bobbie at the Rendevous for lunch & went with them to the matinee "Going Up." Tea at RumplMayer's Stayed in & rested in the evening S E P T E M B E R 1O

Nancy came to train with us. Left for Buxton 12.15 — arrived 4.50 pm. SEPTEMBER 11

This is a light duty hospital: all convalescent patients. Went on duty at noon. Very high Pretty country & Buxton situated on the hillside & in the valley. It seems to rain continuously with high winds. SEPTEMBER 12

Met Col Burnett & his officers at the tea hour. Yesterday letters from Father & Elsie16 Tea today at Northwood Home for Sick Sisters. Saw Miss Carr S E P T E M B E R 13

Letters from Giffin, John & Howell today

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S E P T E M B E R 14 - 15 NO ENTRIES SEPTEMBER 16 Walked up to Solomans temple & through wood in PM Went to dinner with Wishie (Mrs McLean) & enjoyed the evening. She was alone. S E P T E M B E R 17 Saw Valentine on street tonight. Photographs taken today Miss Blott A/ [ssistant] Matron went to London today & I have been left in charge. A meeting in the room at which I was present to discuss a Dance to be given by the different units here. Saw Miss [Vivian] Tremain[e] for the first time Went to the movie met Maj Robson1? SEPTEMBER 18 NS Wishart went to Liverpool this AM for Hosp Ship duty with leave to Canada SEPTEMBER 19 Saw John Valentine today He is on his way back to Canada to finish his Medical Course. SEPTEMBER 2O NO ENTRY S E P T E M B E R 21 On the street behind the hospital here there is a little old fashioned shop with Miss Pilkington Fancy Repository above the door. S E P T E M B E R 22 Went a lovely walk to a waterfall & chasm called "Lovers Leap" late this afternoon. It is so pretty thereabouts & the actual ravine very sinister & grand. The story connected with the name is of Cromwells days S E P T E M B E R 23 NO ENTRY

S E P T E M B E R 24 Went by train to Rowsley & from there by taxi to Chatsworth 204

"I have been left in charge"

WAR DIARY

Hadden House & Hall. Enjoyed the sight seeing very much indeed especially the paintings & tapestries at Chatsworth & the romantic historical atmosphere of both gardens & house at Hadden Hall The country is really very beautiful. A letter tonight from J S says that 2 CCS has moved back to Remy SEPTEMBER 25 -26 NO ENTRIES

S E P T E M B E R 27

Flora Robsons for tea Went with Miss McGrath to Pools Cavern - a huge cave through which the river Wye runs. It will hold thousands of people & was in early days used by Poole a robber who was brought to justice afterward. The formation of the rocks through the dripping of the water is most interesting Mary of Scotts while in captivity in Buxton visited this cave Remains of Roman occupation have been found in abundance here SEPTEMBER 28 NO ENTRY

SEPTEMBER 29

Walked with Miss McGrath 61/2 miles to the Bull & Thorn Inn on the London Road. Had tea 8c then returned to B[uxton] by the same route It rained all the way coming home SEPTEMBER 3O War News from all fronts is good. We are advancing everywhere. In Belgium the line of ridges from Passchendael[e] to Wychette [Wytschaete] have been retaken.18 Bulgaria surrendered to the Allies reported Damascus has fallen OCTOBER 1 — 2 NO ENTRIES OCTOBER 3 Bulgaria terms for peace are severe if they are accepted

206

ieia

OCTOBER 4 - 7 NO ENTRIES OCTOBER 8

Bulgaria has surrendered unconditionally to the Allies OCTOBER 9 - 1 1 NO ENTRIES

OCTOBER 12

The incurable treachery of the Hun is again at work to try to get peace or an armistice to enable them to recuperate. Now that our armies are victorious everywhere, they put forth their cries for Peace. OCTOBER 13 NO ENTRY

OCTOBER 14 The name Capt A.G.C. McDermot is in the Casualty list (killed) today To have lived through four years of this darkness & to die just as the dawn seems to be near. His poor mother! OCTOBER 15 Had BV lived he would have been 20 yers old today. A wonderful 8 miles walk this afternoon by the river path to Miller's Dale. Never have I seen more gorgeous autumn colouring. The walk was a wet one but so lovely. We came back by train The Matron in Chief came to dinner OCTOBER 16 Five of our Sisters at Bishopsdale were told this morning they were to go to the Segragation Camp in North Wales to help with this awful plague of Spanish Influenza which has broken out there. I offered my services in place of another who does not wish to go19 OCTOBER 1 7 Kinmel Park Military Hosp. We arrived 10 pm last night in Rhyl. Met by Can headquarters car & went to bed in a ward hut. A very busy day today Miss Beard & I on a 30 bed ward. Such sick sick men. Many of them will die. 207

WAR DIARY

OCTOBER 18 -21 NO ENTRIES O C T O B E R 22

A letter today from [brother] Reg. dated Sep 30 saying Father has broken his arm. OCTOBER 23 - 29 NO ENTRIES OCTOBER 3O Turkey surrenders to Allies OCTOBER 31 - N O V E M B E R 2 NO ENTRIES

NOVEMBER 3

Austria surrenders to Allies NOVEMBER 4 — 9 NO ENTRIES N O V E M B E R 1O Abdication & flight of the Kaiser to Holland.20 NOVEMBER l1 Capture of Mons by the Canadians. Germany surrenders to Armistice terms NOVEMBER 12 - N O V E M B E R 16 NO ENTRIES N O V E M B E R 17 Went to Miss Jones' for tea with Miss Reid. Met a New Zealand & a South African Cadet there. Nice lads who liked the jolly tea table conversation. N O V E M B E R 18 -26 NO ENTRIES NOVEMBER 27 Miss Pemberton & Miss MacDonald also John saw me off in the taxi. Left Rhyl for Buxton a very tiresome journey. Miss Melburn came to Rhyl. Changed at Manchester & again at Stockport. Mrs Growshaw had a nice supper tray ready for me when I arrived at Bishopsdale at 9 PM. 208

1918

NOVKMBER

28

Left 7.30 AM for London Little Whitney & Kathleen Knight came down to train to see me off. Reported at office of DGMS [director general medical services] & Matron in Chief at 2 pm. Afterwards went out to 66 Ennismore Gardens N O V E M B E R 29

Went to bank & did some shopping in AM. London is wonderful as ever but I have such a stupid companion this trip Went with Miss Upton to see 'the Boy' in the evening at the Adelphi NOVEMBER 3O

Reported at Transportation Office 2 pm. We are to go to Southampton for the Olympic on Monday. Went with Miss Upton to see The Luck of the Navy at the Queens theatre. Telegram from Rhyl saying Gerald was in London & is going north to see me. DECEMBER l

Stayed in all day & rested for the morrow as it is raining & I am not feeling too well DECEMBER 2

Left London 11.30 - Waterloo Station. Miss Hargraves introduced a Mr Charteris who was very kind on the journey down. Arrived Southampton 3.30. Cannot go on board till tomorrow staying at the South Western Hotel. Miss Benjaman [Benjamin] has lost her bag: 2nd offence since we left Rhyl. DECEMBER 3

On board Olympic after lunch. After settling down I went out with Miss B to send a telegram to her people. She is the most helpless individual I have yet seen. Wrote a couple of letters after dinner DECEMBER 4 - 1 3 NO ENTRIES

209

WAR DIARY

D E C E M B E R 14 Arrived Halifax Harbour 8 AM D E C E M B E R 15 — 3 1 NO ENTRIES

[Inside back cover, 1918; undated:] People have been a long time learning that thoughts are things to heal, upbuild, strengthen or to wound, impair or blight. After all we can't do much for many people, no matter how hard we try but we can contribute to their usefulness & happiness by holding for them a kind thought if we will.21

210

Appendices

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APPENDIX ONE

CLARE GASS C H R O N O L O G Y

1887 1901-05 1909-12 1912-15 1915-19

18 March, born at Shubenacadie, Hants County, Nova Scotia, Canada. Baptised Lelia Clare Gass. Secondary education at the Church School for Girls, Edgehill, Windsor, Nova Scotia Nursing training at the Montreal General Hospital, School of Nursing, Montreal, Canada. Graduate no. 384. Private duty nursing in Montreal Lieutenant nursing sister, Canadian Army Medical Corps, No. 3 Canadian General Hospital (McGill) 1915 May-July: Etaples, France temporarily with No. i Canadian General Hospital 1915 July-December: Camiers, France 1915-16 December-March: Cliveden, England, temporarily with Duchess of Connaught Canadian Red Cross Hospital, Taplow 1916-17 March-November: Boulogne, France 1917-18 November-June: No. 2 Canadian Casualty Clearing Station, Remy Siding, on the Belgian border 1918 July-September: Boulogne, France 1918 September-October: Canadian Red Cross Special Hospital, Buxton, England

A P P E N D I X ONE

1920-21 1921-24 1924-52 1952 1953 1968

1918 October-November Segregation Hospital, Kinmel Park, Rhyl, Wales 1918 December: Transport Duty, England-Halifax 1919 January-November: Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue Military Hospital and train transport duty across Canada 1919 November: Demobilization District visitor, Family Welfare Association, Montreal Secretary, Family Welfare Association, Montreal Director, Social Service Department, Montreal General Hospital, Western Division Retirement; volunteer acting director, Social Service Department, Canadian National Institute for the Blind, Montreal Return to Shubenacadie; volunteer work in the community 5 August, death from cancer at Camp Hill Veterans' Hospital, Halifax, Nova Scotia; burial at Shubenacadie

214

T PPENDIX TWO INSTRUCTIONS

FOR

MEMBERS OF CANADIAN ARMY MEDICAL CORPS NURSING SERVICE (WHEN MOBILIZED) * DISCIPLINE AND DUTIES 1 As regards medical and sanitary matters and work in connection with the sick, the matrons and sisters are to be regarded as having authority in and about Military Hospitals next after the officers of the C.A.M. Corps and are at all times to be obeyed accordingly, and to receive the respect due to their position. MATRON-IN-CHIEF

2 The Matron-in-Chief will be required to be thoroughly acquainted with the organization, mobilization and administration of the entire Nursing Service and will exercise supervision thereof. She will keep the records and confidential reports of the matrons and sisters. She will perform such other duties as from time to time will be determined by the D.G.M.S., and will be a member of the Advisory Board for Standing Orders. She will submit to the D.G.M.S.. recommendations for the appointment, promotions, distribution, and resignations of members of the C.A.M.c. Nursing Service and will take action in connection with such measures as are approved. 3 She will, under the direction of the D.G.M.S., perform such duties as may be allotted to her, including general supervision, and she will by frequent inspections keep herself acquainted with the administration of the Nursing Service in the various Military Hospitals. 4 She will be responsible for maintaining a sufficient staff to carry out, in the event of emergencies, all nursing arrangements. 5 She will receive the applications of all ladies desiring to join the C.A.M.c. Nursing Service, and will obtain the necessary references as to suitability of candidates.

APPENDIX TWO MATRON

6 The matron will be responsible for the general nursing arrangements of the hospital, for the due performance of their duties by the sisters and nurses, and for the maintenance of good conduct, efficiency and discipline amongst all members of the nursing establishment, as well as for the cleanliness and good order of the wards under their charge. She will not be responsible for nursing in wards which are set apart by the administrator of the hospital for cases which he may consider unsuitable for female nursing. 7 She will be responsible for the supervision of the sisters' quarters and its domestic economy the equipment, housekeeping, and upkeep of the Home; care and management of the nursing and domestic establishment; the official method of dealing with the establishment when sick; arrangement of their respective duties and times off; the regulations with regard to pay, warrants, travelling and other claims, arrival and departure reports. 8 She will be responsible for demanding from the quartermaster a sufficient supply and for the good condition and cleanliness of the bedding and linen in the nurses quarters and the wards under her nursing charge. 9 She will take over from the quartermaster or steward the equipment shown on the ward inventories in wards nursed by her sisters, and will be responsible for the same to the quartermaster. 10 She will take over from the quartermaster the regulated quantity of bedding for each ward nursed by her staff and will keep a bedding book (A.B.. 54), in which all bedding drawn from or returned to the store will be accounted for. All transactions must be entered and signed in this book as they occur, and she will be responsible for the balance of bedding shown therein. 11 She will frequently inspect the equipment and bedding to ascertain whether any damage has been done thereto, and will check them with the inventories periodically. 12 She will see that all orders and instructions of the medical officers treating the cases are duly carried out by the sisters. 13 In all instances of difficulty she will apply to the officer in charge, who will render her every assistance in the performance of her responsible duties. 216

NURSING INSTRUCTIONS

14 When she is informed of any neglect of duty or impropriety of conduct, whether on the part of sisters, N.c.o.'s, men, patients, or visitors, she will at once report it to the o.c. 15 She will fix the hours of duty, meals, and recreation for sisters and nurses, subject to instructions from the matron-in-chief, in such a manner as will comply with standing orders. 16 She will see that proper medical and nursing attendance is provided without delay for sick members of the nursing establishment. 17 She will keep the books and accounts connected with the nursing establishment; and a monthly record of the messing will be kept together with a statement of the cost, vouched by bills of expenditure; the special allowances drawn by the nursing establishment under the Regulations being entered in liquidation thereof. The register is intended as a permanent record, and will be vouched by the signature of the matron, and inspected periodically by the matron-in-chief. 18 Should the period of mobilization be prolonged, she will make arrangements for the annual leave of sisters, reporting thereon through the o.c. to the matron-in-chief. 19 She will forward a confidential report upon all sisters serving under her. These reports, covering nursing and administrative capability, tact, zeal, judgment, personal conduct and general fitness, will be forwarded through the o.c. to the office of the Surgeon-General: they will be made when a sister is transferred from one hospital to another (except for temporary duty) on the termination of her services, or annually if the period of mobilization be prolonged. 20 She will at the end of each month forward to the matron-in-chief the sick report of members of her nursing staff. SISTERS

21 Every sister in a Canadian military hospital will be under the immediate supervision of the matron, and directly responsible to her in all matters relating to conduct and discipline. She will receive and carry out such orders and instructions relative to the treatment of the sick as she may receive from the officer in charge of her wards, whom she will accompany in his visits. She will be responsible for the nursing of the patients in her wards, and for the cleanliness, ventilation, lighting, warming, as well as good order of her wards and annexes. 217

APPENDIX TWO

22 Before going off duty each sister is required to put in writing in the night memorandum-book any notes on special cases, or other important matters which may be necessary for the guidance of the night nurses and orderlies, or which it may be desirable to bring to the notice of the night-sister. The night-sister will see that these instructions are carefully carried out, and will record the hours of her visit to each ward, noting in the night memorandum-book any information she may wish to bring to notice. 23 Sisters will be detailed in rotation for duty as night-sister for a period of not less than one month, as the matron may decide. A night-sister will report herself to the matron to receive instructions; she will visit the wards frequently through the night, and, on coming off duty, she will report to the matron on the condition of the patients. 24 A sister must comply with the instructions of the matron and officers. She must daily report to the matron as to the condition of her wards, or of the various departments of which she is in charge. She must be careful to mention any irregularities which may have occurred, or other matters to which attention should be directed. 25 Any neglect of duty or impropriety of conduct, whether on the part of N.C.OS., orderlies, patients, or visitors, will be reported by her to the matron. In cases of emergency she will apply for the assistance of the officer or N.c.o. on duty. 26 When in doubt or difficulty in any matter she will at once inform the matron, who will, if necessary, bring it to the notice of o. c., or, in his absence, to the officer on duty. 27 A sister is not, at any time, to go to wards in which she is not working, except on special business; she is not to remain in her own wards, or visit in any other wards, when off duty. 28 A sister may not allow nurses or orderlies to visit in her wards, except on business, or by special leave of the matron. 29 She is to adhere punctually to her time-tables, and to be most particular in returning to her wards at the exact time specified. 30 The sister is personally responsible for the correct measurement of all drugs employed for hypodermic injections, sleeping-draughts, and strong poisons. 31 She will ensure that all poisons and external applications are kept in 218

NURSING INSTRUCTIONS

32 33

34

35

36

37 38

39

40

41

42

their appointed place, and that the special poison-cupboard is kept carefully locked, and the key removed. She will keep the keys of such store-closets and lock-up places in the wards as may be required for the carrying out of these duties. The sister must give the matron the earliest possible information of any serious cases of operations connected with her wards, or of any other matters of importance affecting the welfare of the patients under her care. If a sister deems a special nurse or orderly necessary, she must immediately report the fact to the matron. At night the night-sister will act for the matron, mentioning full particulars in the report. She will take over from the matron the regulated quantity of bedding for her wards, and the equipment shown on the ward inventories and will be responsible for the same to the matron. A sister must take care that there is no waste of provisions, coals, gas, water, or other articles. She must exercise the strictest economy compatible with the adequate supply of the patient's needs, in the use of mackintosh, bandages, tow, lint, cotton-wool, and all surgical dressings. A sister is responsible for the linen allotted to her ward, and for its good condition. In cases of fresh admissions into her ward she will ascertain when the patients last had food and see that they are not kept waiting for suitable nourishment. She will cause to be drawn from the steward the personal equipment required for each patient on admission, and will be responsible that it is returned into store on the patient's discharge or death. A list of these articles is given in Standing Orders for C.A.M.C. When a patient is able, she will obtain his signature on the counterfoil on A.B. 42, as an acknowledgment of having received these articles, but when he is so ill as to be unable to look after his equipinent, she will cause the ward-orderly to endorse the book. When a patient is too ill to look after his regimental clothing, the sister will cause the articles to be handed into the pack-store with the clothing, and will countersign the cheque from A.B. 182. When any case of illness or accident is brought to hospital, or in the event of any accident, emergent illness, or attempted suicide, resulting 219

A P P E N D I X TWO

43 44 45

46

47

48

49

50

51

52

in personal injury, occurring in the hospital, she will cause a medical officer to be at once informed, and, pending this arrival, will take such steps within the limits of her training as may appear to her to be necessary to meet the requirements of the case. She will be responsible that patients who have been allowed up throughout the day are in bed by 8 p.m. in winter and 9 p.m. in summer. She will see that the discharged men leave her wards in sufficient time to be present at their parade. She will visit her wards at meal times and see that the diets are properly distributed and served and that the patients conduct themselves in an orderly manner. She will communicate any irregularity to the officer on duty. The sister will daily receive from the steward the wines, spirits, or malt liquor ordered for the patients in her wards, and be responsible for their correct distribution, in accordance with the orders of the officers. When the daily diets and extras have been entered on the diet-sheets by the officer, she will complete and sign the Diet and Extra Sheet Summary (A.F. F734). She will then check and countersign these forms and transmit them to the steward. Prescriptions and requisitions for Drugs must reach the Dispensary not later than 11 a.m. She will immediately report to the quartermaster all damage or deficiencies, as well as breakages of crockery or table glass, or any damage to library books. She will submit all applications from patients for writing materials, tobacco, etc., to the officer in charge of the ward for approval, and will arrange for such indents and for letters to be sent to the officer in charge of the hospital for disposal. She will be careful that money, articles of food and drink, books, tracts, pictures or articles of equipment are not introduced into the wards without the previous sanction of the administrator. Sisters and orderlies should unite in showing special sympathy and kindness to the friends of those patients who are on the "dangerous list." Sisters are earnestly requested to interest themselves in the home circumstances of men being invalided as permanently unfit, and make such representations as may be necessary to the matron. 220

NURSING INSTRUCTIONS

53 She will be most careful in noting the religion of patients under her charge, and in the event of serious illness, she will see that the Chaplain of patient's denomination is duly notified. 54 When a death takes place the sister in charge of the ward will see that the body is reverently prepared for the mortuary, and will then inform the senior N.C.O., who will proceed in accordance with Standing Orders, C.A.M.C. 55 A sister is not permitted to accept presents of any kind from any patient, or friend of any patient, whether during his illness or after his death, recovery, or departure. 56 She will, by every means in her power, afford the orderlies ample opportunity for learning their duties, and endeavour to awaken their interest in all that pertains to nursing. As far as the exigencies of active service permit, she will endeavour to impart to her orderlies a knowledge of the following subjects: (i) Personal cleanliness, (n) Cleaning of ward, dusting, sweeping, cleaning, baths, tins, brasses, taps, etc., mackintoshes. (in) Cleaning and disinfection of all utensils, beds, and lockers. (iv) Bedmaking-draw-sheets, changing of sheets for helpless patients. (v) The correct reading of measure glasses and other measures used; with constant practice to see that the quantities indicated are really known. (vi) The accurate use of the clinical thermometer; the pulse and respiration; registering the same on charts, (vn) Names of instruments in constant use in the wards, and how to use them (syringes, enema apparatus, etc.) (vm) The padding of splints of all kinds; making of different bandages; abdominal, many-tailed, etc. (ix) The application of every sort of bandage. 57 The sister is held responsible for reporting to the matron if any of the nurses serving under her are not well, and if they appear to need medical or surgical attention. 58 Uniform is to be worn on all occasions, both indoors and out of doors, 221

APPENDIX TWO

59

60

61 62

except when on leave out of garrison, or by special permission of the matron. Jewellery is not worn with uniform. Sisters are not to visit each other after 10.30 p.m. but must retire to their rooms by that hour, unless special permission for late leave be obtained. Their bedrooms are to be neat and orderly and all lights are to be extinguished therein by 11 p.m., unless special permission be given. A sister is not to absent herself from meals without permission. Except at the recognized "off duty" times she will not absent herself from the hospital or quarters without permission. She will be careful to exercise due courtesy and dignity in all her relations with officers, N.C.OS., men and patients. She will bear in mind that unquestioning obedience and loyalty to her superior officers are an obligation. APPENDIX A PATTERNS AND MATERIALS OF U N I F O R M S .

Uniforms will be purchased by the members themselves, an allowance for this purpose being granted. The establishments selected to supply it will be intimated to them, and all details furnished on application to the matron-in-chief. The following instructions are published for guidance in connection with the purchase and provision of uniform: Full Dress: Should not be worn whilst actually engaged in ward duties; otherwise interchangeable with working dress. Navy hue cloth, scarlet collar and cuffs, with white piping. C.A.M.C. buttons and belt clasp. Two stars on each shoulder. Shoes and Stockings Black. Working Dress: Permissible at all times, summer and winter. Linen, mid-blue, washable. Buttons: Gilt C.A.M.C. 222

N U R S I N G INSTRUCTIONS

Rank Badges: Two stars. Belt: Tan coloured leather with C.A.M.C. clasp. Collars: Eton. Cuffs: Bishop pattern. Aprons: White. Caps: Muslin (one yard square). Shoes or Boots and Stockings: Tan coloured. Great Coat: Navy blue cloth. Raincoat waterproof: Navy blue. Cape: Navy blue cloth, lined with crimson. Hats, winter wear: Navy blue felt with C.A.M.C. badge. Hat, summer wear: Panama, Navy band with C.A.M.C. badge. Helmets may be worn when serving in hot climates. For State ceremonies and entertainments matrons are responsible that uniformity of dress is maintained. Mufti:

(a) For golfing, riding, tennis and other games. (b) When on leave, outside Garrison areas. (c) The wearing of mufti in France is not permissible at any time. APPENDIX B Articles of Field Equipment with which Members of the Nursing Service will provide themselves when ordered on Active Service.

i i i

Steamer Trunk, not to exceed 36 x 24 x 12 inches, with name and service painted plainly, Sweater, mid-blue, Waterproof Apron.

223

A P P E N D I X TWO CAMP KIT

The Kit will consist of the following in addition to three general service blankets, to be obtained free under regimental arrangements from barrack stores: i Telescopic Cot Bedstead. Dunnage bag with name and service plainly painted on.

B A G G A G E OF O F F I C E R S AND N U R S E S P R O C E E D I N G O V E R S E A S VIA FOLKESTONE AND BOULOGNE

1. In view of the confusion which at present exists when Officers and Nurses claim their baggage on arrival at Boulogne, it has been decided that each piece of baggage shall be conspicuously addressed with the rank, name and unit of the Officer or Nurse owning the baggage. All such baggage will be taken in charge by the Railway Company, and arrangements made with the Embarkation Staff at Boulogne for its delivery in proper order to the owners. 2. The Railway Company will not take charge of any baggage which does not comply with the above instructions. 3. These instructions will take effect from the 25-6-17, from which date the registration of the baggage of Officers and Nurses travelling by the above route will cease. 4. The attention of all Officers and Nurses should be called to these instructions, which should periodically be republished in Command, etc., Orders. (Auth. G.O.C. R.O. 1717 d 15-6-17)

224

A P P E N D I X THREE

CLARE GASS'S OVERSEAS

CORRESPONDENCE

20 May 1915

[postcard to her father: the sea front, Boulogne-sur-Mer] We are still here but expect to move on to our work tomorrow. Miss Lindsay, one of our number was out yesterday & says we are going to be very comfortable in tents & huts & that the situation is beautiful. I am starting a long letter telling you of my doings but am too unsettled just now to finish it 21 May 1915

[postcard to her father of Porte des Dames, Boulogne] .. .When I get time to think out my wording carefully I will write you all my news but at present feel too unsettled to write very carefully. [May-June 1915]

[postcard to her mother of L'Ancienne Eglise Notre-Dame, Etaples] Give her [Bell] the coat or anyone the things you like. By the time I get back they will all be old fashioned. Keep the old green suit. It is alright for certain things. 24 July [1915]

[postcard to brother Blanchard of a statue at Paris Plage] [congratulations re school examinations] I hope you will work well next year as well for though you are big & strong you are really too young to enlist & you are serving your king & country far better just now, by studying & preparing for the future. As I have seen more of the troops from the front I have realized how foolish it is to come over here till you are twenty at least & you are only sixteen yet so don't tease Mother any longer to enlist for you will really prove a braver boy if you stay at home with her & work at school. 28 August [1915] [extract of letter to her mother] I am still on night duty & am writing at my desk, I expect to come off a

APPENDIX THREE

week from tonight - I love the work as our convoys of patients always come in at nights but I hate the days trying to sleep & not succeeding. [three names of locations censored] ...Mother don't allow Blanchard to enlist, he is far too young; he is not seventeen yet. His duty to his country at present is to play the man at home & stick to his lessons to fit himself for his service later. - when it comes to a time of a dearth of men in Canada - then will be time enough for old men & lads to enlist. The British War Office in its far seeing wisdom in this very matter has ordered all Fifth \fear Medical Students back to their universities to finish their year knowing that their help will be needed later on. In the early part of this war too many young lads in their enthusiasm enlisted under false pretences of being eighteen - but until it is an absolute necessity - which it is not at present - I think it is very wrong - Until the government requires sixteen & seventeen year old boys to enlist - it is wrong for them to go surely? There is no doubt about the final outcome of this war, but we still have to think of the future of the nation & these young boys ought to be preparing to take the places of the men who have given their lives for the cause & whose places will have to be filled when the war is over. I have been so hard on my boots since I came to France! - being able to wear one pair nearly a year as a rule I have worn two pairs completely out since April & was on my last pair when I got Granty to send me another pair from Gales just like the others I got there. Beatrice is going back to Montreal in October. I am glad as Granty is very dull without us all. It is going to be frightfully cold here in the winter. Already here in the nights I am wearing all the clothes I possess including a sweater & am contemplating very soon sending to Granty to purchase flannels for me, luxuries which as you know I do not usually indulge in. I will never forget these wonderful moonlight nights lately. I often stand at the door when I am not busy & the sight of this great sea of tents in every direction is a wonderful one. 24 October [1915]

[extract of letter to her mother] 226

OVERSEAS CORRESPONDENCE

...one parcel contains only a Paris doll for [cousin] Marion the rest of the packet I would like you to keep closed till Christmas day - I have been collecting these little things all summer at different times since the weather has settled down to rain &: wind we will be confined more or less to camp I don't mind the cold but it is almost impossible to keep things from getting wet in these tents in rainy weather. Tonight it is pouring & bitterly cold with a north wind. I am in bed Granty sent me nice warm underwear - thick gloves - bed socks & warm stockings from Montreal & I got an eiderdown quilt from England so I am pretty comfortable but the winter here both in the trenches and out is going to be miserable. If only this dreadful war could end speedily. I owe about a million letters at this moment & it is generally too cold to sit in this tent 8c write - the only warm place is - bed. 7 July [1916]

[letter to her brother Cyril, enclosing one from their father to Clare, 21 June 1916] This note from Father has just come so I am sending it on to you. We come honestly by what pluck we have don't we? Isn't he a brick? No let up in the work just yet. If the early days of June were bad from the Ypres district these early days of July have been worse from another district & of course the war news continues to be good. You see my cable reached home just in good time for a Montreal letter which came tonight tells me you were reported in the Montreal papers of the 2 grd as wounded; those papers would not reach Father till the 25th & very shortly after that my letter would come to them. So it all worked out well. I hope your leg is getting on well. I am so pleased to hear it has cleared up so quickly. We are very fortunate dear lad! I haven't heard from Gerald yet this week but trust he is all right as there does not seem to be much doing just now at his part of the line. I've been intending to go down to No 8 to see Miss Griffiths but have been really too busy lately. Wasn't it lucky that my ward was in isolation while you were here.

227

A P P E N D I X THREE

[enclosed letter to Clare from her father, 21 June 1916] \bur "Marconi" "saying Cyril wounded in hospital here, progress satisfactory Don't worry Am writing particulars" just to hand. I gather from this that the wound is a serious one, but not dangerous and that he is in your hospital for all of which I am very thankful. I know you will keep me well advised as to his welfare and let him lack nothing. Mother and Reg send their love to him and best wishes for his recovery. Let me know at once how he goes along and I will try for a furlough home for him when he is fit. That is if he wants it - He has done his share like a man and I am proud of him - He needn't worry if he is disabled. With his head and mine we can pull through. I am sending a "Chronicle" that will cheer him up as I think my boys are as gritty as I. Tell him for me not to worry to let me know what he wants and he will get it or the hair will fly somewhere. 22 July [1916] [postcard to her brother Cyril] We are still busy as ever. ... I wish these Shubenacadie boys would let me know if they come to Boulogne wounded. There are so many things I could do for them. ... We are getting Australians in here by the hundreds these latter days, they have been getting just what our C[anadian] troops got in the early part of June. Let me know what day you are going to have your operation & write as soon as you feel able after it is over & find out if you will stay in this hospital till you get your new foot or if you will go to a CC [Convalescent Camp] in England or wait to get your foot at home. [July 1916]

[postcard to her mother of a painting by Francis Tattegrain, "Marie la Boulonnaise"] .. .Am also trying to write a little article for the Edgehill magazine but am not really in the mood nor have I proper time these days. I usually write at night in bed & get so sleepy over it that it really isn't worth much 26 August [1916]

[postcard to her father of Ruins of Leicester Abbey] Found Cyril looking fairly well & up & about on crutches. We went for a 228

OVERSEAS C O R R E S P O N D E N C E

long drive this afternoon &: had tea together in town 19 September [1916]

[postcard to her mother of Canterbury Cathedral] 1 have been very busy since I came back from England. Our own Canadian boys just now some of them with heart-breaking wounds - I go on night duty tonight so want to get this card off before I lie down for a afternoon's rest. I've had beautiful pansies this summer & have gathered a few seeds which I'm enclosing - my other flowers were lovely but not exceptional but these pansies were wonderful & I'd like to see if you can get some plants like them 31 January 1917

[postcard to brother Cyril of a scene from Lady Godiva] [glad he's home; Athel will soon be there] I had a very rough crossing back to France & was very sick. We are very busy just now but feel the better for my holiday 2 September [1917] [postcard to her father of Edinburgh Castle] I have loved Edinburgh ... we leave for London tonight. France on Tuesday. I hope before another leave is due this horrible war will be over [September 1918]

[postcard to her father of Buxton from the Slopes] This is a light duty hospital. Very little to do & what there is very uninteresting. The Matron is going to London tomorrow for the week & I am to be left in charge. And as all my war nursing so far has been actually with the sick & wounded & I know nothing about official lists & reports - I am not looking forward to the week especially as I hardly know this hospital routine yet or my way about. 25 September [1918]

[postcard to her mother of Peck Hydro Buxton Canadian Hospital] Absolutely no news. Think I am probably established here for six months 229

A P P E N D I X THREE

or a year before I will hear anything more of transport duty. We sent a lot of patients home from here this week. [October 1918]

[postcards # 2 and 3 to her [mother?] of St George Village near Abergele, Wales] ...seven wards for the sick Canadians While this influenza is prevalent there will be no chance of my coming home as England is very short of nurses at present. We are busy now so it doesn't matter but it would be a very dull place if the hospital were slack. The Mess too is a tragedy We are not getting nearly enough to eat & there is no place to buy. However I am well, so have much to be thankful for 14 January [1919]

[postcard to her mother of Windsor Castle but mailed in Canada] The ADMS won't let me go home. Says he may place me in 24 hrs. Probably at St Anne de Bellevue. Will write as soon as I hear. Will need my thick uniform which is in the empty front room

230

A P P E N D I X FOUR "TO THE MEN OF THE C A M C " 1

At this time, when our boys are returning with honour to their homes, there are many among them in the Medical Corps of whose actual work at the front, little is known by the civilian population of our land. The following verses written in 1917 at a Canadian Casualty Clearing Hospital give a glimpse at least of the nobility &: faithfulness of the soldiers in this branch of the service. We sing of a band of workers whose praise is seldom heard On whom no decorations or honours are conferred, No battle rush inspires them, no lust to win & slay; These are the quiet fighters we are honouring today! The struggle always with them is to leave &: join the throng Of soldiers in the trenches where 'tis said mens' gifts belong Yet they have never failed us & of their best they give That maimed & battered comrades may retain the strength to live Some of them come from our prairie with its wealth of golden grain Where daily toil has prepared the soil for sunshine &: sweet rain And now their mighty endeavours are not for the wealth of the farm, But to see that comfort is given to a fractured leg or arm. How have they learn [ed] the secret, they who have tilled with the plough? Secrets supposedly womens' in days that are past until now? Into each heart Christ's sorrow - sorrow for war's despair Has planted a seed of his gentleness & He will harvest it there. Some were our city school boys with all their love of Romance Ready & eager to join in the battle in far off France These were the flower of our country - so straight of life & limb Energy, loyalty, & keenness, with uniforms wonderfully trim: And they have been posted to duty, here in our hospital ward With none of the exultation & glamour of musket &: sword

A P P E N D I X FOUR

And here in their disappointment in the midst of the agonies real They give of the strength of their young arms & their purity of ideal. Some are our men of business dealers are these in gold Financiers wise & crafty where things are bought & sold These were the steel of our nation & have given up all for the Cause Money & homes & children - to carry out Honour's laws. And these are working at bedsides, untireing through the long day Awaiting the call to the front line which will bring them into the fray Calculating minutely that which is needed here And helping with firmness of courage our boys to meet death without fear. Some come from the silent Northlands, warriors tried are they Men who could match their prowess with Prussian guards today, Men, whom the trail has cultured, men whom the silences taught Lessons of skill & endurance with sterness & labour wrought: And here in the day of battle & far removed from the strife They arrange the hospital tables to prepare for the surgeon's knife. Or with willing & quiet footsteps at the sound of the faintest moan They bring a drink to a bedside & gentlest sympathy's shown So have they given their service in ways that were not their choice So have they shown us their manhood nor given their grievances voice Some have been killed at their duty when the bombs rained death from the sky Some have contracted diseases & were not afraid to die And some go on in the workings though the days & the years are long And are still the truly gentle & are still the truly strong. These are a band of heroes! God guard them still we pray These are the quiet fighters we are honouring today!

232

APPENDIX FIVE

LIST OF THE MEMBERS OF THE O R I G I N A L U N I T , NO. 3 C A N A D I A N G E N E R A L H O S P I T A L

(MCGILL) *

C O M M A N D I N G OFFICER

Colonel Herbert Stanley Birkett SECOND IN COMMAND

Lieut.-Col. Henry Brydges Yates OFFICER IN CHARGE OF SURGERY

Lieut.-Col. John Munro Elder OFFICER IN CHARGE OF MEDICINE

Lieut.-Col. John McCrae (Appointed from the ist Brigade, Canadian Field Artillery) OFFICER ATTACHED

Lieut.-Col. J.G. Adami Major John Lancelot Todd SENIOR OFFICERS

Major Edward William Archibald Major Walter Henry Hill Major Allan Campbell Howard Major John Campbell Meakins OFFICERS Burgess, Capt. Henry Clifton Browne, Capt. John George Dixon, Capt. Howard Chancellor Ewing, Capt. William Theodore Francis, Capt. William Willoughby Henderson, Capt. Arthur Theodore Hingston, Capt. Donald Alexander Howell, Capt. William Boyman Hutchinson, Capt. John William Law, Hon. Capt. David (Q.Master) Little, Capt. Herbert Melville

A P P E N D I X FIVE

Macdonald, Capt. Ronald St John MacMillan, Capt. John Malone, Capt. Reginald H. McKim, Capt. Lawrie Hamilton Pirie, Capt. Alexander Howard Reford, Capt. Lewis L. Rhea, Capt. Lawrence Joseph Robertson, Capt. Russell Butler Russell, Capt. Colin K. Stevenson, Hon. Capt. George Henry (Dental Officer) Thornton, Hon. Capt. Lawrence H. (Dental Officer) Tidmarsh, Capt. Frank Wendell Turner, Capt. William George Wickham, Capt. John Cuthbert Wilkins, Capt. Walter Ashby Osier, Hon. Lieut. Edward Revere MATRON Matron Katherine Osborne MacLatchy NURSING SISTERS

Archibald, N/S Cora Peters Armitage, N/S Beatrice Louise Austin, N/S Mrs Maud Emilie Babbit, N/S E. Pearl Bliss, N/S Mary Bradley, N/S Eva Brand, N/S Louise J. Carman, N/S Harriet E. Carpenter, N/S Ellen E. Chisholm, N/S Sara Clark, N/S Muriel Maud B. Cooper, N/S Alice Mary Cotton, N/S Dorothy McL. P. Davies, N/S Isabel De Cou, N/S F.I. Gertrude

RVH 1909 MGH 1913 RVH 1912 MGH 1913 RVH 1911 RVH 1910 RVH 1909 MGH 1910 RVH 1914 RVH 1914 MGH 1908 MGH 1912 RVH 1910 MGH 1908 MGH 1913 234

O R I G I N A L UNIT, No. 3 CGH ( M c G i L L )

Dickie, N/S Elizabeth Lillian Drake, N/S Harriet T. Duncan, N/SJennette F. Eastwood, N/S Victoria Engelke, N/S Mary Evelyn Enright, N/S Nellie J. Fitzgibbon, N/S Olive Forgey, N/S Bertha Fortescue, N/S Margaret Jane Gass, N/S Clare Giffm, N/S Mrs Edna Jane Gillis, N/S Louella Louise Glendenning, N/S Jane Gourlay, N/S Roberta Graham, N/S Ruby Rutherford Gray, N/S Lilly Naomi Handcock, N/S Eleanor Harrison, N/S Constance W. Hoerner, N/S Sophia Mary Jack, N/S Charlotte Christina Lindsay, N/S Mabel Leslie, N/S Edith Loggie, N/S Ruth MacDermot, N/S Mary Langdon Macdonald, N/S H. Hilda Macintosh, N/S Margaret I. MacKay, N/S Kaireen MacKeen, N/S Frances MacLeod, N/S Claire S. MacLeod, Katherine A. Macnaughton, N/S Charlotte Louise Mann, N/S Jane Elora McConnell, N/S Rachel McDiarmid, N/S. Anne B. McGreer, N/S Louise McLeod, N/S Louise Frances 235

MGH

igiO

RVH

1907

MGH

1904

RVH

!9°9

MGH

1912

RVH

igog

RVH

!9!3

RVH

1909

MGH

1906

MGH

1912

MGH

19*3

MGH

1909

RVH

1914

MGH

!9!4

RVH

19*3

MGH

!9!3

MGH

MGH

19*3 1910 1898 1914 1898 1912 1910 1911

RVH

!9!5

RVH MGH RVH RVH RVH MGH

RVH

1902

RVH

1 1

RVH RVH MGH MGH MGH MGH RVH MGH MGH

94 19*3 19*3 1 1 94 1904 1914 1914 1908 1912 1908

A P P E N D I X FIVE

Morewood, N/S Anne Saumarez Muir, N/S Mary Middleton Park, N/S Margaret F. S. Pidgeon, N/S Lilian Robertson, N/S Seaborn Rodd, N/S Janet M. Ross, N/S Julia Marjorie Sampson, N/S Violet Eleanor Sedgewick, N/S Jessie M. Sewell, N/S Hope Stark, N/S Anne Steele, N/S Mary F. Stevens, N/S Louise Myrtle Stewart, N/S Alice Mary Stuart, N/S Constance Mary Tate, N/S Annette M. Watling, N/S Christina Mary Walters, N/S Everetta Whitney, N/S Eveline Mary Woods, N/S Margaret J. Wright, N/S Maude

MGH

!9!3 !9H

RVH

1913

RVH

19H 19*3

RVH

1914 1907 1914 1914 1914 1902

MGH

1914

RVH

1

MGH MGH RVH RVH RVH

MGH MGH MGH MGH MGH RVH RVH

OTHER R A N K S

236

914

RVH

RVH

Abell, Pte. Murray Clement Adams, Pte. George Frederick Apps, Pte. Carl O. Archibald, Pte. William Charles Baby, Pte. George Raymond Bache, Pte. Joseph Henry Bale, Pte. Thomas William Bankier, Pte. John Patrick Barnes, Sergt. Ernest Bausch, Pte. Charles Joseph Baxendale, Pte. Albert Belanger, Pte. Philippe Bernard

1

MGH

913 1912

i9H 1909 1910 19*3 19*4 1912

ORIGINAL UNIT No, 3 CGH (McGiLL)

Bell, Pte. E.H. Benger, Pte. Manfred Beveridge, Pte. William Wentworth Bieler, Pte. Jean Henry Billington, Pte. Horace Winsland Bisset, Pte. George William Bissett, Sergt. James Blunden, Pte. Denis Alfred Bolland, Pte. William Bowie, Pte. Gordon Harper Brand, Pte. Maxwell Stanley Brooks, Pte. Charles L. Budd, Pte. Henry William J. Chappie, Pte. Hugh Chisholm, Pte Alexander Neil Christie, Sergt. David Semple Christy, Pte. Arthur Church, Pte. Cyril Klock Clarke, Pte. George Ernest Collingwood, Pte. Gordon Francis Craigie, Pte. Charles Craik, Pte. Oliver Stanley Crediford, Pte. Harry Thomas Crichton, Pte. James Culyer, Pte. Bertram William Currie, Sergt. George Selkirk Davidson, Pte. Walter M. Day, Pte. Chester Sessions Day, Pte. Henry Stockwell Demuth, Sergt. Otto Dodge, Pte. William Drummond, Lance-Corpl. Alfred J. Duley, Pte. Walter Albert Eaton, Pte. Harry Edward Eberts, Sergt. Harold F. H. Egan, Corpl. Hugh Arthur 237

A P P E N D I X FIVE

Elder, Pte. Herbert Munro Elsmore, Pte. Hugh Cochrane Evans, Pte. Harry Ilsley Farlinger, Pte. Anderson C. Farquhar, Pte. John Alexander Fauvel, S/Sergt. Bertram Auguste Felix, Pte. Gordon Adolphe Fitzgerald, Pte. William Victor Fraser, Pte. John Weldon Freeman, Corpl. Frederick William Fry, Pte. Henry Stevenson Gall, Pte. George Lockhart Gallagher, Pte. Cedric Aubrey W. Gardner, Pte. Alexander John Gareau, Pte. Urban J. Gibson, Corpl. Lawrence Gibson, Pte. Percy Leopold Giroux, Pte. Joseph Guiou, Pte. Norman Miles Hadley, S/Sergt. William George Hale, Pte. Richard G. Halley, Pte. John Lockyer Hartwell, Pte. Arthur Hefferman, Sergt. John Maurice Henry, Pte. Charles Blanchard Hermon, Pte. George Ernest Hersey, Pte. Eric Mason Hobart, Pte. George Maxwell Holman, Pte. John Hopkins, Pte. Robert Charles Hume, Pte. George Edward Humphreys, Pte. William James Hunter, Pte. William Andrew Hutchison, Pte. Keith Ogilvie Jenks, Pte. Archie Nathaniel Johnson, Lance-Corpl. John 238

O R I G I N A L U N I T No. 3 CGH (McGiLL)

Johnston, Pte. Hugh Alston Kean, Sergt. Cecil Darling Keeping, Pte. Benjamin Charles Kelly, Pte. Frederick Joseph Kendall, Pte. Carson J. Kennedy, Pte. Archibald Philip Kennedy, S/Sergt. George Lionel D. Kinsman, Pte. Reginald Price Lalonde, Pte. Lionel Laing, Sergt. George Frederick Lapp, Pte. Victor R. Laurin, Pte. Earl M. Learmonth, Corpl. James Learoyd, Pte. Douglas R. Le Bel, Pte. Moise William Leeson, Pte. Lavell Hall Lefebvre, Pte. John Gordon Lennox, Corpl. Norman Lockhart, Pte. James R. Logan, Pte. Herbert Lemuel Lowry, Pte. Wilbur Clouston Lyons, Pte. George Albert Macaskill, Pte. John Macdonald, Pte. Douglas Ogilvie MacDonald, William Alexander Mack, Pte. Harold James MacKechnie, Pte. Richard Edey Macnaughton, Pte. Benjamin F. Macguire, Pte. Ernest Warren Malcolm, Pte. Charles Gordon Manning, Pte. Clinton Edgar Marshall, Sergt.-Major Albert F. Marshall, Pte. William David Martin, Pte. Leslie John Martin, Pte. Max Matthews, Corpl. Frederick 239

A P P E N D I X FIVE

Mathewson, Pte. Cornelius Kelly McCleery, W.O. Edward Jenner McCormick, Pte. Robert Roy McCusker, Pte. Emmet Andrew McDonald, Pte. Hugh Reid McKenzie, Sergt. William Michell, Pte. Robert Lee Miller, Pte. Fred Gus Mitchell, Pte. Horner Dean Mitchell, Pte. William Hector D. Montgomery, Pte. Lome Cuthbert Mungall, Corpl. William Silvester Neilson, Pte. Henry Kenneth Nolan, Pte. Joseph Offord, Pte. Robert James Ord, Pte. William Erling Owers, Pte. William Heath Paine, Pte. Henry George C. Palmer, Pte. John Hammond Parmalee, Pte. Arthur Granville Parsons, Pte. Walter Stanley Payne, Corpl. Thomas Albert Pedley, Pte. Frank Gordon Peterson, Pte. Clyde Forington Phillips, Corpl. Archie Lovell Poirier, Pte. Henry Price, Pte. Reginald Francis Ramsay, Pte. Irving Daniel Rankin, Pte. Archibald James Redman, Pte. Rupert Cheesman Reid, Pte. Loudon Corsan Richards, Pte. Archie Loveluck Rigg, Pte. Charles Henry Riley, Pte. Richard Robertson, Pte. John Roman, Pte. Charles Lightfoot 240

O R I G I N A L U N I T No. 3 CGH ( M c G i L t )

Rose, Pte. William Harold Rose, Pte. Walter James Rosenthal, Pte. Solomon Ross, Pte. Alexander G. Ross, Pte. Dudley E. Scriver, Pte. Walter de M. Sharp, Pte. Albert Davies Simkins, Pte. Henry Charles J. Simms, Pte. Hans Skinner, Pte. Bernard Woodworth Slack, Corpl. Harry Smeall, Pte. James Edward Smith, Pte. Frederick Samuel Smith, Pte. Herbert Henry Smith, Pte. James Henry Smith, Pte. Lee Smith, Pte. Stanley Rowan Spiller, Pte. Albert John Spohn, Pte. Henry Gordon Stewart, Pte. Charles C. Stewart, Pte. James Reid St George, Corpl. Stewart F. Stockless, Pte. Willis George Suter, Sergt. Albert Ernest Templeman, Pte. William Tennant, Pte. Percy S. Terry, Corpl. Gilbert Shire Thomson, Pte. Roswell Tinling, Corpl. Charles Burnaby Toovey, Pte. Kennedy Hamilton Trefry, Pte. Harold Scott Valentine, Pte. John Baptist Vaughan, Pte. Arthur Cecil Walcott, Pte. Francis Sharpe Walsh, Pte. Cecil Owen Warner, Pte. James Harrison 241

APPENDIX FIVE

Warner, Sergt. Joshua William Wert, Pte. Harold Clifford White, S/Sergt. Frederick White, Sergt. Harold White, Pte. William Horace Wienke, Pte. Charles Wilkes, Sergt. Alfred Burton Wilkinson, Pte. William Henry Williamson, Pte. Harold Freeman Williamson, Pte. Norman Trenholme Wilson, Sergt. Robert D. Woods, Pte. Charles Halkett C. Wright, Pte. Henry Stanley Yates, Pte. Christopher Montague

242

A P P E N D I X SIX MATRON MACLATCHY'S RECOLLECTIONS No.3 Canadian General Hospital. Sailed from Montreal on the Metagama, May 6th, 1915. The personnel consisted of 35 officers, 73 nursing sisters, 130 rank and file By Matron K. O. MacLatchy Our send-off from Montreal was most enthusiastic and took away a little of the sadness of farewell. The second day out the news of the loss of the Lusitania by enemy submarines caused us to think seriously about "the demons down under the sea." The voyage was fairly smooth and quite enjoyable. Several cases of illness broke out and several emergency operations were performed. Sisters were detailed for duty and the patients well cared for. When we reached the danger zone, we were again reminded of the dangers that lurked unseen. Bands ceased playing, no lights were allowed on deck, port holes were closed and heavily curtained, and there was a general air of suppression. All arrangements for action were made should the boat be torpedoed. The last night at sea all retired partly dressed and with our life belts beside us and waited for what might happen. However, a peaceful and radiant dawn came at length and the sight of the green hills not far away caused us to thank God and take courage. We arrived at Devonport about 4 a.m., May 15th, disembarked at i p.m. and entrained for London. The railway journey through the most beautiful part of England, including Devon (glorious Devon) was thoroughly enjoyed, and the panorama of the smiling landscape with the meadows and gardens in their riot of colour, thatched cottages, ivy-mantled towers and castles, beautiful trees, rivers and hedges, crowded out the unpleasant memories of the old ocean's grey and melancholy waste. The Sister [s] and I were met by the Matron-in-Chief, Overseas Canadian Nursing Service, and we were conveyed in charabancs to hotels to await orders. Orders were received on the i8th for 56 sisters to proceed to France. 15 were detailed for duty with the Canadian Red Cross Hospital,

APPENDIX six

Taplow. I remained in England until June 13th, and on that date proceeded to No. 2 Canadian General Hospital, Le Treport, France, to await orders to rejoin No. 3 Canadian General Hospital. My orders came July lyth to rejoin hospital at Dannes, Camiers. The sisters were recalled, and in a few days we were together again and the work of making a hospital was begun. The weather was ideal and our tents were pitched in a pleasant valley, at the foot of high hills upon which the grain fields, with pop[p]ies and cornflowers intermingled, flourished and the ever varying shadows passed. From the summit of these hills the view was delightful; the peaceful village, the long stretch of sand dunes, the plaza, the restless ocean. After our little grey homes, i.e. bell tents, were made habitable, the work of equipping the hospital wards was begun. Sisters were detailed to each line of tents and the sisters in charge drew the linen and equipment, and the wards were soon ready for reception of the sick and wounded. The sisters and orderlies converted empty Red Cross boxes into linen cupboards, medicine closets, bread boxes and what not. Each bed was equipped with hospital kit, towels, wash cloths and soap, and a Red Cross bag containing useful articles was hung from the head of the bed. Our first convoy arrived August 8th - 36 cases. The excitement was intense, and we felt that we had begun the great work for which we had left our homes and country. During our stay at Camiers we received 3000 sick and wounded, the busiest time being the Battle of Loos. About the ist of October the bad weather began - fog, rain, gales and penetratng cold. The tents leaked and mud was terrible. The entry in my diary for October 25th was: 'Very windy, with driving rain. Pools of water all over the camp. Nearly blew out of bed last night. Hospital tents all leaking, several condemned. Sisters mess tent almost up in the air. Outlook not cheerful." November yth, we received orders to close up, and the patients were evacuated to England. Some of the tents had blown down and the mud was almost impassable. The closing up and turning in of equipment occupied some time. The unit was again broken up and the sisters detailed for duty in England and France. Wooden huts had been commenced for sisters' quarters and were ready for occupation December 8th, and we left our little bell tents without regret. During these months of rain and mud the health of the sisters was excellent, their cheerfulness under such dampening 244

MATRON MACLATCHY'S RECOLLECTIONS

circumstances was wonderful, and they showed early in the game the stuff they were made of. The only heating apparatus each had was a small blue flame oil stove, and that winter of 1915-16 was cold and blustery. January 3rd, we again rejoined our unit in Boulogne. The site of our hospital was the grounds of an old Jesuit College, previously the site of the Indian Meerut Hospital. The sisters were recalled and again began the preparations for the sick and wounded. This time, the accommodation was in galvanized iron, wooded and asbestos huts, tents, and part of the old college, which provided room for 2000. The outlook was dreary enough when we took over, but some alterations and a great deal of soap and water finally made the place habitable, and on February 14th we received the first convoy in Boulogne. Small convoys each night during the winter and spring months kept us comfortably busy. With the spring and summer the aspect of the hospital grounds changed. The beautiful trees, with ivy-mantied trunks, the spring flowers which carpeted the grove, the stone covered with ivy, made the hospital a thing of beauty to the men who, a few hours before, were in the filth of the trenches. On the 24th May, the Red Cross recreation hut for convalescent patients, "erected, equipped and maintained" by the Canadian Red Cross, was formally opened, the Princess Victoria concert party giving an excellent concert. This hut had facilities for reading, writing, two billiard tables, gramaphone and piano. It was beautifully situated in the grove in the hospital grounds, and from its wide verandah the view was delightful. The convalescent patients enjoyed the hours spent in this hut and the many concerts by the concert parties from England and army divisions. July 3rd, 1916, brought a change in the quietness of the hospital. The battle of the Somme had begun, 8374 patients being admitted during the month. July loth, 836 were admitted and 420 evacuated. Large convoys daily in August. The battle of Vimy Ridge also brought many casualties. April i8th, 1917, over 200[o] were in hospital, and large convoys were received daily durng the month. These figures will show the work there was to do during the many large battles. The following figures may be interesting: Number of patients admitted to hospital, 1915, 3,039 (August to November); 1916, 35,640 (January to December); 1917, 48,465 (January to December); 1918, 42,191 (January to December); 1919, 4,233 (January to March); detained for the night, 9,684. Total, 143,252. Total number operations performed, 11,395. Num245

APPENDIX six

ber returned prisoners of war (Nov., 1918), 1,533. The personnel was increased after the first year, the number of nursing sisters allowed for a aooo-bed hospital being 112. The number actually on duty varied with sickness or leave, and when the great battles were raging, several would be sent to reinforce the nursing staff of the Casualty Clearing Stations near the firing line, returning when their services were not required. The cheerfulness of the patients was remarkable, which helped those who were attending them to carry on and endure the sights and suffering caused by enemy guns. A large wound would be called "a scratch," and the usual remarks were, "Have I a blighty?" "It's good to 'get between sheets'"; "Give me a fag"; etc. During the battle of Vimy Ridge we received many Canadians, and they were one and all jubilant over their wonderful achievement. It was a great privilege to get our own soldiers, but the Imperial, Australian, New Zealand and South Africans were all alike, brave and uncomplaining, and all felt it an honour to minister to them. During 1918 the visits of the Hun by aeroplane were very frequent. My diary records about 40. The anti-aircraft guns, with deafening boom, kept him at a distance, but did not prevent him from dropping bombs dangerously near our hospital, and often casualties from the raids were brought into our hospital. During these visits all were supposed to "take cover," as the shrapnel and unexploded bombs were dangerous. Several times "duds" fell in our grounds, and, on one occasion, part of the shell casing crashed through the roof of the ablution hut and buried itself in the concrete floor. During an air raid in March, 1918 a bomb was dropped in our hospital grounds, tearing an immense hole. Windows were broken in the hospital huts and in the sisters' quarters; there were no casualties, as the trees and stone wall afforded protection to the huts. In August, 1918, bomb-proof dugouts in the sisters' quarters were completed. These were excavated through rock and clay, and three entrances were protected by sand bags. Forty steps connected these entrances with the chamber, which accommodated about 200. Sisters off duty were supposed to remain in the dugouts until the "all clear" was sounded. The work of the Red Cross cannot be too highly praised. Its help to the hospital was incalculable. There was no need it could not supply, and the feeling that we had only to ask to receive was cheering in these days when our hospital was full of the recently wounded. The Matron had charge of the 246

M A T R O N MACLATCHY'S R E C O L L E C T I O N S

Red Cross supplies and was responsible to the officer commanding the hospital. Indents as required were forwarded to the Canadian Red Cross stores at Boulogne, and the cases received were placed in the Red Cross stores on our own grounds. Indents were submitted to the Matron daily by the sister in charge of each ward, who distributed the articles received when needed. Among the thousand and one useful articles were socks, pyjamas, sweaters, pneumonia jackets, dressing gowns, utensil bags, bandages, dressings, etc., etc., etc., and, of course, the most appreciated by the patient were the cigarettes, chocolates and gum. A "fag," when a large and painful wound was being dressed seemed to help him keep his nerve. The cases of apples, oranges, jam preserves, canned peaches, jellies, etc., deserve honourable mention. Each apple was wrapped with tissue paper and packed with greatest care, so that they arrived in perfect condition, and the jams, jellies and preserves showed the same loving care. I am sure the women who prepared these delicacies felt that possibly a husband, son, brother or sweetheart might receive a portion of his favorite preserves. The devotion of our noble women at home will never be forgotten, and each one deserves the "Well done, good and faithful servant." Just a word about the nursing sisters with whom I had the honour and pleasure of being connected. About 400 had duty for long or short periods with No. 3 Canadian General Hospital. The sisters' one thought when on duty was the comfort of their patients, and many francs of their own money were spent for delicacies for the seriously ill and treats for the convalescents. These attentions helped them to forget for the moment their horrible experiences. There were many inconveniences to put up with, and often the hours were long and work heavy. Night duty on active service, which came about every three months, was most difficult and nerve racking, especally during the long, dark, stormy night. The convoys of sick and wounded usually arrived during the night, also the evacuation to England took place. During the long battles the night nurses often had 100 or more heavy surgical cases under their care and these had to be watched vigilantiy for haemorrhage and gangrene. Often these duties were performed with the enemy plane overhead, amid the deafening noise of our own anti-aircraft guns. The only light allowed was a shaded lantern until the "all clear" was sounded. The courage of the sisters on these occasions was remarkable and won the admiration and respect of the patients. In the Great War the nurse was 247

A P P E N D I X six

truly "a ministering angel", an inestimable source of comfort to the "broken soldier" in his hours of suffering, "even unto death." Our days over there were not all work and no play. Durng the quiet times the sisters had extra time off and availed themselves of the opportunity of visiting the neighbouring towns and lovely valleys near the hospital. They also derived a great deal of pleasure from the tennis court and the occasional dances in the Red Cross recreation hut. Our own officers and many from the line who were at Rest Camp attended, and all were better for these diversions. And there was the two weeks' leave about once a year to England, Scotland, Ireland, and later to Paris and the south of France, which refreshed and invigorated. The health of the sisters was excellent, considering the strain and the periods of pneumonia and influenza epidemics when the wards were full of infection. We left two of our sisters sleeping in the land of poppies. One of our original staff is "asleep in the deep" with those brave souls who stepped into immortality when the Llandovery Castle was torpedoed. The ineffable sadness of the haunting notes of the "Last Post" at the graves of our well beloved will never be forgotten, and in these days of "Peace on earth" our thoughts are often of those who "Short days ago, lived, felt dawn, "Saw sunsets glow, loved and were loved."

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N U R S I N G SISTER MABEL CLINT'S RECOLLECTIONS1

igi8. BOULOGNE AND AIR RAIDS

After this interlude, it was with personal joy, and the envy of many that two of us received orders on April 12th., our application for service in France being approved. It was an emergency call for nurses, as the consequences of the break in the line, the terrific carnage of the close fighting, the confusion of the retreat, and the congestion of hospitals in all areas, needed relief after weeks of overwork and menace. I think we reached London on a freight train, for I remember we were in a litde compartment with two benches at the rear of trucks, and saw no conductor, and rattled and jolted, and stopped frequently till 4 a.m., when we ran into the Midland station. The hotel, depleted of its staff, had only one sleepy old man behind the desk, but we literally fell into bed, and knew nothing more till a jangle of church bells at 11 roused us. We needed several articles of equipment, and it was Sunday. A telephone call to the shop where our uniforms were made elicited the fact that two cleaners were there, and would let us in if we knew where to find what we wanted. We selected them in the dim, sheeted showrooms, and I verily believe could have loaded a lorry with goods and driven off. Were we not Sisters, and Canadians? Our name stood high in England since Ypres. With that baffling English trust in honesty, we were allowed to depart without payment, one of the men offering to parcel our merchandise, and come back at 5 P.M. to hand it out, and receive our cheques. And there he was to the minute. How happy we were to see once more after a long absence the silhouette of Boulogne Cathedral, the gray walls of the massive citadel, the irregular pile of hotels, and steep, roofed houses along the quays, the masts of the fishing boats, the curving break-water and the light house. No. 3 Canadian General Hospital was formed originally of some of the most distinguished surgeons and physicians of Montreal and McGill University, the first such unit to be enrolled in the Empire. The nurses came chiefly from the two largest hospitals there, the Montreal General and Royal Victoria. And the first summer medical students had volunteered as orderlies and dressers. It was therefore a more homogeneous Unit than others

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that had preceded it. No. i General or Base Hospital at Etaples, and No. 2 General at Le Treport had been carrying on a steady service since the spring of 1915, and these Base Hospitals got all the worst cases in the area behind a particular sector. Organized for "the duration", they had not the constant uncertainty, movement and evacuation of patients in the Stationarys, (a quaint misnomer) but after a severe engagement their work was extremely heavy; operating day and night, and after care of wounded tested all resources, for which of course they were more fully equipped. They expanded to 2000 beds on occasion. Some men could not be moved for months. Throughout the four years the Canadian Medical Profession was proud to hear general praise of the lay-out, ward arrangements, surgical and nursing skill given to all Casualties in these two representative Units, and patients were united in grateful acknowledgment to doctors, nurses, and orderlies. "McGill" had been established for some time at the summit of that two mile long hill, which had seen so many thousand British troops march up it to the tune of "Tipperary", since August 8th. 1914, till want of breath silenced them. The site of the huts was amidst trees, and included the semi-ruins of a Jesuit College, which was utilized as operating theatre, etc., with a post-operative ward adjoining. Capacity was 2400, M.Os. 28, staff 300, and the Sisters numbered about no. Since the enemy advance of March, they had been working at high pressure, and as the Germans retook ground that had been British since 1914, even Boulogne became fairly near the front, and emergency dominated all actions. At various times for services at the Clearing Stations, Canadian Medical Officers had been gazetted awards of the V.C. [Victoria Cross] and M.C. [Military Cross], and more such recognitions of valour and duty were won in 1918. To these weeks also belongs the story of the heroic conduct of Sisters who remained to the last minute in these Clearing stations, and as they fell back, continued to assist the surgeons in tents set up by the wayside, doing what they could for the wounded, till ordered to Boulogne, unable to risk capture by an enemy who did not respect the Red Cross. Those men who had a chance for life went down in the trains, and ambulances (many driven by women) which came up to the firing line, but many had to be carried out on stretchers, and left on the grass to die, for neither time nor conditions allowed evacuation of all. I wish these ex-sisters would combine their experiences in a brochure for record in the Canadian Nurses' Association. 250

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It is a thrilling chapter in the history of the C.A.M.C., which should be set down before all is obliterated. Some of these Sisters were attached to what had become known as Surgical Teams, which did good work over a wide area. They were composed of Surgeon, Sister, Anaesthetist (often a Sister) a non-commissioned officer and an orderly, and were sent as a mobile unit to whatever points their services were most required, remaining a certain number of weeks before relieved. They had to have a practical "gas-mask course" before they left. Close to No. 3 rose the tall Colonne de la Grande Armee, looking out to the Channel, where below Napoleon had assembled his regiments for one of those carefully planned invasions of England which never materialized. However there was the Column, in memory of the intention, and all around it for miles British camps, hospitals, cemeteries, marching men, guns and stores, on such a scale as even Napoleon never dreamed of.... "the nation of shopkeepers" come to the aid of his erstwhile subjects, and for their own existence, to bar the way against an equally boundless ambition, and more ruthless foe. Lower again, on the beach at Ambleteuse, Caesar's Cavalry are said to have embarked for England. He had more luck, but got such a fierce reception that it was ninety years before Romans again invaded the White Island. Up to the month of July the situation was so complicated and obscure on the new trench alignments that the hospital was turned into a huge Clearing Station in itself. As many as 670 were once admitted in 24 hours, fed, put to bed, dressed, operated on if necessary, and 469 sent across the Channel the same night. We had constantly to be ready for rush orders, but there were also periods when the expected did not happen, and we were idle. There always remained several wards where the fractures unable to be moved were concentrated and where all the appliances and treatments evolved by war surgery were in use. One hut which required good nursing care was that set apart for chest cases, mortality among such being high. Mustard gas too provided us with a large number of suffering men, few of whom probably were curable. Later too the Influenza epidemic almost filled every hut with medical cases, and the daily work became more like that of a civilian city hospital, with the greater proportion of the patients in bed for days. Infected wounds and gas gangrene were the most serious and difficult cases to treat for months in 1918, amputations being more numerous than at any other period, and tetanus prevalent. Surgical and nursing skill were united in 251

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effort to save life and limb amid the appalling wastage of war. On May igth.-2Oth. occurred the shocking affair at Etaples twenty miles away, the deliberate bombing by a score of enemy planes of English and Canadian Hospitals, full of helpless patients, supposed to be protected by the Red Cross. There were 171 casualties, 56 fatal, many from machine gun bullets, and among them seven Canadian sisters, of whom four died. As one London paper put it: "This is one of the most diabolical crimes that Germany has committed. Let us hear no more of German Airmen's 'chivalry.'" These incidents do not properly come within the scope of these pages, as I was not present, but I cannot refrain from mentioning them. One who was there said of the Sisters: "I was proud of them." There was no panic. Those not on duty lay under beds to avoid breaking glass. Amid darkness, explosions, noise, and bursts of flame, no one made any outcry, and the Matron and five Sisters received the soldiers' decoration, the military medal, for bravery in action. One Sister went out to get morphia for a companion bleeding to death, and others rendered first aid, literally under fire. "I thought the girls were splendid", wrote an eye-witness: "Sister W . . . . dying out on the hillside, and knowing it, yet begging them not to bring stretcher bearers into that inferno, when it could not save her. All of them saying, just as the men do, 'Don't bother with me; I'll be all right. You people will be exhausted'. All the blackened faces." The Canadian Hospitals involved were Nos. i and 7 General, and 7 and 9 Stationary. Attacked again later, the destruction was so great that Etaples was evacuated within two weeks. Lives of several Sisters were saved by one, perhaps the heroine of the night, who went back over and over again, and insisted on getting her comrades out of a hut which had taken fire unknown to them. A long procession wound through the great Etaples military cemetery two days later, (12,500 graves there) and there the names of the victims may be read among the stones bearing the Maple Leaf. We heard the bombardment distinctly, and the Hun planes had passed over us, but had no missiles left on their return. About a month after this outrage we heard with horror and incredulity of the sinking of the Llandovery Castle hospital ship, fortunately without patients, and the drowning of fourteen Canadian Sisters and others in an open boat. Ten New Zealand Sisters had previously met a similar fate in the Marquette. The number of Imperial nurses drowned must have exceeded this total, and many were torpedoed and rescued. 252

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Boulogne was bombed almost nightly that summer, chiefly to destroy the morale of the population, as well as deal a blow at the British line of communications. It was pitiful to see the French, young and old, wending their way at nightfall to the galleries opened under the broad walls of the fortifications. Some died there, some were born, and at 5 a.m. back they tramped again to daily work, worn, sleepless, but resigned as ever to passive resistance. On June goth water and electricity were cut off for some hours by bombing damage to the main conduits, and the enemy airmen circled so low at times that it seemed they proposed to land in the grounds. Shrapnel fell like rain, and five terrific explosions smashed glass far and near. On this occasion discussion arose as to how best to show up hospital areas at night, and orders were posted to lay out a large pebbled or white-washed square on the ground, with the Red Cross in the centre. Many argued however that this merely supplied an easy target for the enemy airmen, and the latter speakers from evidence accumulated were apt to be right. To us also it was a nerve-racking time, as we were disturbed once and twice nightly if the weather was clear, and about five nights a week. Usually about 11 P.M. a maroon would sound the alarm, "Huns over lines." The second signal informed us the enemy airmen were at Calais, and the third that they were in our own area. All lights were immediately extinguished, and an eerie silence awaited the first crash. It was not so much the noise as the concussion on the ground that was most terrifying, and speculation never could be sure of the direction, and who or what had been hit. Breaking of glass, shrapnel from French anti-aircraft posts, sharp machine guns in action, and "Lizzie" close at hand increased the din. From a German prisoners' camp nearby came cries of terror, and demands to be released from the attentions of their own craft! I seem to recollect that when a number of us foregathered in the dark in some central hut on these occasions, and Sisters off duty were doubling up beneath beds in twos and threes, that the site I selected was quite popular. For never being able to fit under an army cot, I had to remain on top of one, and there was quite a competition for the extra protection of the lower storey! ... One particular night, August 1401., it was estimated 80 bombs fell on the town and vicinity, in an attack which lasted one and a half hours, over an area of perhaps three by one and a half miles, such a raid as even London had not experienced. Several hospitals were hit that night, and nurses and 253

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patients killed at Wimereux, a St. Johns' Ambulance party, just back from unloading a Red Cross Train, were wiped out, an ammunition plant was struck, a railway dump and British Officers' Headquarters practically destroyed, the docks hit, and the Casino hospital set on fire. Several other fires also started, which with star-shells, flares and search-light beams, the continuous barrage, and the chatter of the 'Archies', made it appear that all Boulogne was doomed. Forty were killed, and stretcher bearers worked amid the burning ruins, collecting the casualties with death overhead. Among those who had stationed themselves with their own cars in various quarters of the town to convey wounded to hospital in these raids, were a number of English women, whose courage and prompt aid saved many a life, and won the admiration of the inhabitants. We ourselves were fortunate, No. 3 getting only a 'dud' shell, and another which burst in the sunken road between the hospital and the Sisters' Quarters. There was a dug-out of sandbags in the corner of our ground then, but two of us preferred, if we were about to die of Hun frightfulness, not to be smothered, and sitting at the door of our hut, had a good view of the weird scene. The red glare of fires, bursts of firing from the defence positions, the shaking of the ground under us, shrapnel pattering on our roof... a nose-cap whacked on to our doorstep ... made an appalling ensemble. To walk down the Grande Rue next day, with its gaping hotel rooms, its blockage of bricks and stone, the great holes in the fields, ruins of walls and gardens, yawning windows, would have resembled nothing but an earthquake, had we not become familiar from photos with such scenes of devastation. Sir Robert Borden came over just then, and ordered timbered dug-outs to be prepared for sisters off duty, as it was at last realized that the Germans would observe no rules of war whatever. There was some suggestion that sisters should be withdrawn from night duty but as it met with strenuous opposition it was never put into effect. The tunnel, built by Canadian Railway troops, and finished by German prisoners, was 2 2 feet underground, with i o feet of earth above. Two entrances, screened by sandbags, provided escape if necessary. It was a cold and clammy shelter to slide into from a warm bed. It was "an Order" that everyone must repair to this retreat at the second maroon. One night when I had warned a new arrival from Canada, who was all excitement, and inclined to think air-raids were great fun, that she must not linger, she still stood at the entrance, bound to see the first attack any254

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way. A bomb crashed, and she came hurtling down the slippery mud steps, on top of me, stuttering: "Was ... that... a b ... b... bomb?", while the whole place quivered, and stones clattered outside. Sundry small articles were scattered about our floors when we came up, and the next field had a hole in it the size of a cottage. We had to be always on the alert at 11 p.m., and more often than not the Alarm sounded. A scramble for boots, a grasp at a kimona and military coat, and we joined the parade of the tired, angry company of pigtails and pyjamas. Scarcely had the "All clear" been sounded by a bugler on the walls of the town, and we were lying dressed and muddy on our beds, (for we knew 'Fritz' would be still about) than the Alarm would ring out again, and the performance be repeated. Often a third time the "Alert" roused us, and perhaps it was 3 a.m. before we got to sleep, to rise again at 6, and go about our duties. It was extremely fatiguing, but did not succeed in breaking our spirit. Sisters from the Clearing Stations, spending a night on the way to leave, declared ours appeared to be the real front, as far as air attacks went. We could always tell the difference between an enemy machine, which had a wicked throb, and our own, which droned or hummed. Everyone preferred to be on duty during air-raids. There were things to do, even in the dark. We carried morphine, hypodermic and tourniquets in our apron pockets. The worst cases were visited, and rounds made to see that no light was visible. I saw a speck at the end of a ward one night, while the enemy was above us, and on remonstrating, an apologetic voice of a lad of 18, replied: "Sorry, Sister, never thought. It was something to bite on." To those who lay helpless in splints, it was a greater ordeal than fighting, waiting for the next 'hate' to mangle already crushed frames. On the whole, however the soldiers slept through raids, and my waking those who had beds up in a great attic under some skylights, where they might lose their eyesight, was not really popular. No air fighters could be spared from the front at that time for defence of back areas. At the end of August we were able to remark that we hadn't had a raid for a week, and the enemy become too occupied then with the great offensive of the Allies to spend the nights annoying us. They had failed in their objective, paralyzing Boulogne harbour, and shaking the fortitude of the Boulognais. But two more of our nurses had been murdered in the meantime in another dastardly attack on British hospitals there. At Doullens in No. 3 Canadian Stationary a night operation was in progress, and as the German aircraft flew back and forth 255

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overhead, they finally with machine guns killed patient, surgeons, sisters and attendants. No. 7 and 9 Stationaries were practically wrecked, and personnel had to be withdrawn. On Sunday June 3Oth., both men and nurses proceeded to various cemeteries to decorate Canadian graves for Dominion Day. The first British cemetery which we had visited at the top of the hill in Boulogne in November, 1914, was now closed, and in beautiful order, but alas! the immense increase in the green mounds, the long straight rows of trenches, the little crosses arm to arm, the names of thousands added, since, during the farflung course of duty, we had last stood there. A short united service was held, and the Last Post sounded. One of the most fantastic sights of the whole war happened each evening at Boulogne. A row of fat, 'sausage' balloons would rise irregularly to the east of the town, wavering and inflating themselves in an awkward, sluggish fashion, like great, brown pigs. They carried an invisible wire net, and were for the purpose of entangling enemy aircraft, like chains in the Straits of Dover for 'U' boats. Opinion was divided as to their utility. They may have stopped a few planes, but others got through or above them. The Silver King and Silver Queen, British Observation Balloons, floated gracefully above the Channel most days, and it was a great relief to see each morning a group of our planes soaring over camp towards the lines. The first year of lack of guns, ammunition, and an army, were a terrible strain even to the non-Combatants. Only - as we counted each 'bus,' we felt it told its tale of the previous day's losses. Our clever Canadian Concert party the "Dumbells" had been giving entertainments in the reserve lines for a long time, and our patients enjoyed a visit from them, and "shows" nightly in the Y.M.C.A. Hut. The "Maple Leaves" also entertained us later. The hospital huts of No. 3 were on the whole more commodious than others in which I had served, central aisle was wider, and at one end a small office was provided, and a compartment for preparation of diets, from which also meals were handed out after being received from the main cook-house; washing of dishes was done in the wards. A patient was selected in each hut and given a week or so longer of convalescence before being marked for "Con. Camp." Among these, as a rule, easily the best were the 'Jocks." These Scottish boys seemed to have been home-trained to be useful, enterprising and faithful in little jobs. I don't know what we should 256

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have done without them. One kept my "primus stove" going for two weeks. I think he got out of bed at midnight to take a look at it, and had a pride in helping to 'run' the ward. Canadian Sisters always had a great deal more physical work to do in the wards than the English Nurses, as their trained orderlies accomplished a large amount of routine care of the patients in the latter hospitals. One of the 'Jocks' could not sleep one night after admission, though hot drinks, etc. had been given him. Replying to the nurse's enquiry as to what was the matter about 3 a.m., he said: "I'm quite O.K., Sister. It must be the bed. I haven't been in one for seventeen months." I admit this was the one and only occasion when I heard of "rest in bed" keeping a soldier awake! German prisoners were employed in outside duties in various camps, being marched over from their barbed wire enclosures daily. Our patients used to throw out cigarettes to them, and they were chiefly at this time young men who had been school-boys before 1914, stolid, expressionless, and dull. Though these youths had no personal share in preparation for hostilities during previous years, they had all formed part of the compulsory school navy league bands, and had been educated in every possible manner to glorify the fleet of the Vaterland, and contribute their pfennigs to its increase for the purpose, as they were told, of rending from England, that arch enemy, the command of the sea. It was therefore not to be wondered at that they were all ready and looking forward to "The Day". We had too in 1918 some American patients from Calais who had met with accidents or were ill. I was surprised to find that among them was a considerable percentage of illiterate young men. Most of the Americans who had fought with the Canadian contingents I think elected to remain with them after the entry of their own country into the war. Personally I believe Canada had a great deal to do with U.S.A. final participation, through interest and admiration for the achievements of this Dominion, publicly and privately expressed. It was only in 1919 that we learned for the first time 'WHO HAD WON THE WAR'!

"McGill" also was the hospital to which the Portuguese sick were sent, and they averaged about 600 listed during most of 1918, over 5000 in all receiving medical attention. A few statistics of a General Hospital in war may prove informative for comparison. 257

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From Aug. yth. 1915 to April 1919. Total cases admitted: Wounded: Sick: Died: Operations: Admissions wounded one night, Passed through, busiest month Operated on one month,

143,762 52,389 81,689 986 11,395 490 46,000 2,300

A reminder of Lemnos came on Oct. 3ist. when a brief despatch announced that General Townshend had signed an Armistice with Turkey in Mudros Bay, some little consolation for the ills endured there. Other Armistice rumours reached us with regard to the western front, but were scarcely heeded, for "They say" had long lost authority. Also the victorious advance of the last three months, in which Canadians took a glorious part, must, we thought, be continued into Berlin.

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1 Nicholson, Canada's Nursing Sisters, 96, 98; National Archives of Canada (NA), MG 30, £45, Margaret Clotilde Macdonald Papers, "History of Nursing Services," Ch. 6; "Correspondence," Macdonald to W.R. Landon, 12 May 1922; Gunn, "The Services of Canadian Nurses and Voluntary Aids During the War," 1975. Census of Canada 1921: 5,476 nurses in 1911 and 21,162 in 1921. The total death number for CAMC nurses is 46; 39 is the overseas number. Nursing numbers vary by source and location, from 2,000 to 3,000. Those giving the higher number usually include about 500 nurses serving with the military in Canada and another 400-500 serving overseas with nursing organizations other than the CAMC. 2 Information on the Gass family background comes from conversations with nieces, nephew, and a cousin in Nova Scotia in the spring of 1999: Elizabeth Anderson, Geraldine Brenton, Trudy Henderson, Roslyn MacPhee, John Gass, and Marion Walsh, as well as from telephone conversations and correspondence with nieces Catherine Germa and Mary Brown in Ontario in the autumn and winter of 1999—2000. A chronological oudine of Clare Gass' life, pieced together from die research for this book, is included as Appendix i. For mobility of Nova Scotian women, see Brookes, "The Provincials by Albert J. Kennedy," 94 and Beattie, Obligation and Opportunity. 3 Edgehill Calendar, 1903-4, 1904-5. According to the handwritten Edgehill ledgers for 1902 and 1903, Robert Gass Esq. of Shubenacadie was

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paying $75 a term for his daughter's board and tuition and a varying amount, usually approaching $25 a term, for extras. The major extra expense was "pianoforte" at $12 a term. Annual school expenses therefore would be $300. Family recollection has it that the Gass daughter was the only child in the family to receive this kind of schooling. 4 Clare Gass belonged to the "second generation" of nurses trained in Canada. See McPherson, Bedside Manners 19, 30, 39. 5 McGill University Archives (MUA), RG 96 MGH School of Nursing, Container 424, File 685 "Probationers." She was one of thirty-three probationers allowed to continue their training that year from an initial group of fifty-three chosen from close to six hundred applicants. MUA, Annual Report of the Montreal General Hospital 1909, 81. 6 MUA, RG 96, MGH School of Nursing, Admission Registers, Container 417, File 611 Register of Student Agreements. 7 Ibid., Container 416, File 608, Register of Nurses and Probationers Employment; Container 427 File 688 Nurses' Register and, the same volume reversed, Register of Nurses' Work, 1909-12. 8 Ibid., Container 429 has a sample of student record cards from 1911, although Gass's file was not among them. A printed assessment form was available, with the personal information severed by the University Archivist. 9 Nicholson, Canada's Nursing Sisters, 45. 10 Ibid., 46-7 11 Morton, When Your Number's Up, 183. 12 Canadian Nurses Association Archives (CNA) , Nursing Sisters Association of Canada Papers (CNATN), Secretary [Jean Gunn] to R.L. Borden, 21 December 1914; H.M.Jacques to Jean Gunn, 15 January 1915. 13 MacDermot, History of the School of Nursing, 59. The formal Instructions for Members of Canadian Army Medical Corps Nursing Service is included as Appendix 2. 14 Fetherstonhaugh, McGill, 42-9. A list of the original members of the unit is included as Appendix 5. In addition to the General and Stationary Hospitals, Canada had six Forestry Corps Hospitals, four Casualty Clearing Stations, and one Field Ambulance; Morton and Granatstein, Marching to Armageddon, 278. 156. Allard was the first to draw the connection between nursing training

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and military life ("Les infirmieres militaires," 68-81). 16 J.Cameron-Smith, " The Preparation of Nurses for Military Work," 556. 17 NA, Macdonald Papers, "Pay for Nursing Sisters," NA, Canadian Expeditionary Force, RG 150, Ace 1992-3/166, Box 3436-16, Clare Gass personnel file, pay sheets. The extra allowances amounted to $18.60 a month while a nurse was "in the field" (duty in France) and $30 a month for the costs of the nurses' "mess," their eating and social centre. Clare's pay sheets show her earning between $108 and $111.60 per month, of which she assigned $50 a month to a bank in Montreal. Travel allowance usually meant vouchers for first-class train travel, although the latter was not always available. 18 Gass Diary, 2 March 1916. 19 The McGill University Library and the Canadian War Museum both have collections of war posters. Desmond Morton has gathered a number of slide reproductions of posters and photographs which he kindly allowed me to view. A good sampling of British posters is found in Haste, Keep the Home Fires Burning. Feminist historians have begun to untangle the gendered nature of war propaganda along the lines I suggest here. Two of the best examples are Susan Kingsley Kent, Making Peace and Nicoletta Gullace, "Sexual Violence and Family Honor." 20 The Canadian military nurses' uniform is described in detail in the first appendix of the nursing Instructions, see Appendix 2. For an analysis of early nurses' uniforms in Germany, see Poplin, "Nursing Uniforms." The reaction of Londoners to the Canadians' uniform appears in Bruce, Humour in Tragedy, 3, and Clint, Our Bit, 21. One Canadian nurse found the uniform very unappealing and praised Matron-in-chief Margaret Macdonald for allowing the nurses, once they arrived in London, to shorten the garments and refashion the hats, Wilkinson, "Four Score Years and Ten," 16. Another Canadian, serving with the Americans, had quite the opposite reaction, although she was describing the working as opposed to the dress uniform: "Their [the Canadians] uniforms are very pretty, bright blue with brass buttons and they wear veils like the V.A.D.S [Voluntary Aid Detachments]. We'd all love to wear them too if we could"; Bongard, Nobody Ever Wins a War, 31 (entry for 12 February 1918). At least two of Clare Gass' nieces recall being confirmed with one of their aunt's nursing veils as head cover. 261

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29

The nurses were, of course, not the only ones to refer to the soldiers as "lads" and "boys." Male officers did so too, the nomenclature accentuating the lower rank of the common soldier. In a military hospital system that placed middle-class, mostly single women in charge of soldiers' bodies, that lower rank needed to be accentuated. McGill University, Osier Library of the History of Medicine, Edward Archibald Fonds, Dr E. Archibald to his wife, 21 August 1915. NA, Macdonald Papers, "History of Nursing Services," Ch. 4, "Appendix to Headquarters Canadians Routine Order No. 2330 of 28 August 1917. Fetherstonhaugh, A/o.j, 163. Fetherstonhaugh, No.3, 155, 194; McGill Daily, 21 December, 1916; Fetherstonhaugh, No,3, 149. The forbidding of dancing for British nurses appears in Haldane, The British Nurse, 221; Osier Library, Archibald Fonds, E.A. Archibald to his wife, i July 1916; NA, Macdonald Papers, "History of Nursing Services," Ch. 6, "Report on Work in France," 10. The research interest appears in Dr Archibald's letters to his wife, as well as in NA, RG 9, in 0-3 vol. 5035 (also MCF Tiog25 and T1O926), War Diary of No. 3 Canadian General Hospital (McGill). The meeting of the Medical Society (20 September 1917) is also recorded in Fetherstonhaugh, No.j, 128. Desmond Morton traces part of this path in When Your Number's Up, 186. The War Diary for No. 3 CGH records its nursing numbers, 30 June 1918. One of the drowned nursing sisters has received biographical notice: Rena Maude McLean in Dictionary of Canadian Biography 14 (1911-20): 723. One of them is also depicted in more universally recognizable attire (which she would not have been wearing) on the war poster illustrated at page xxiii. The cleansing solution was a variant of sodium hypochlorite, the traditional one being Dakin's, with two new ones, Eusol and hypertonic salt solution, added during the war. Fetherstonhaugh, No.%, 60. For a graphic description of wound cleansing and treatment, see "Memorandum on the Carrel-Dakin Treatment of Wounds," The Canadian Nurse 15, 11 (November 1919): 2107-11. The use of women as anaesthetists was so successful that British hospitals sent their nurses to be trained by the Canadians; Fetherstonhaugh, No.j, 262

NOTES TO PAGES xxx-xxxin

154. Women doctors who were anaesthetists saw action in France with the Scottish Women's Hospitals; Crofton, The Women of Royaumont, 255. 30 The "small attentions" is a Gass phrase from her diary, 18 August 1915. 31 The numbers of patients at No. 3 CGH (McGill) from 7 August 1915 to 12 May 1919 were as follows: 81,689 si°k> 52,389 wounded, and 9,684 admitted from detained hospital ships, for a total of 143,762. In that total were 11,395 operations, 409 deaths from illness, and 577 deaths from wounds; Fetherstonhaugh, No.j, 249. See Appendices 6 and 7 where Matron MacLatchy and Nursing Sister Mabel Clint quote similar numbers. The batties whose names came to resonate across the twentieth century are \pres, Festubert, and Loos in 1915 (the first two before the opening of No. 3 CGH); St Eloi, Mount Sorrel, Sanctuary Wood and the Somme in 1916; Vimy, Ypres, Messines, Hill 70, and Passchendaele in 1917; and Moreuil Wood, Amiens, Canal du Nord, and the Canadian advance to Mons in 1918. The comparison of Canadian nursing work with that of English sisters is from Clint, Our Bit, 118. Two Canadian nurses who served temporarily with a British hospital in 1915 commented unfavorably on the English nurses. "The nursing is punk, in fact is not nursing at all," wrote Ruby Peterkin to her sister, 20 June 1915 (NA, MG 30, Ei6o, Irene Peterkin Papers). And Laura Gamble confided to her diary that although the [English] sisters were kind, "to our way of diinking not what we would call good nurses" (NA, MG 30, £510, Laura Gamble Papers [10-11]). Fetherstonhaugh, McGill, 50, quotes the student who cleaned wounded soldiers. 32 One of the oldest gendered divisions of labour is man as combatant and woman as non-combatant. Nursing sister Sophie Hoerner refers to three officers - one the chaplain - being left to guard the few remaining nurses at Camiers early in January 1916; (NA, MG 30, £290, Sophie Hoerner Papers, Hoerner to Mollie, 8 January [1916]. Colonel Birkett's concern about the effect of billetting is in NA, Department of Militia and Defence, RG 9, in c-io, vol. 4571, file i, folder 3: H.S. Birkett to Matron Macdonald, 4 December 1915. Later in the war, Birkett also objected to the proposal that women take on 263

NOTES TO PAOES xxxiv-xxxvi

33

34

35

36

clerking tasks at his hospital in order to release the men for active duty. He thought the hours and the late nights required of the clerks were too much of a physical strain for women, "apart altogether from the cardinal consideration of morals and discipline." Ibid., folder 5: Birkett to A.A.G. Canadian Section. GHQ, 20 June 1917. Desmond Morton mentions the soldiers breaking ranks in When Your Number's Up, 187. Lapp's letter to Gass, dated 4 October 1916, is in the possession of Elizabeth Anderson, formerly of Porter's Lake, now of Windsor, Nova Scotia. The poem, handwritten and tucked loose into the diary, was "written in 1917 at a Canadian Casualty Clearing Hospital" (preface to the poem); I have deduced that the author is Clare Gass. The poem is reproduced as Appendix 4; the original is in the possession of Elizabeth Anderson. Praise for the nurses comes from NA, War Diary, No. 3 CGH, 18 January 1917, and Macdonald Papers, "History of Nursing Services," Ch 5: "The Canadian Casualty Clearing Stations Nos 2 & 3" by Matron Cameron-Smith, 5. Personal and career information from Clare Gass military personnel record at the National Archives, from conversations with the family members named in note 2 and with family friend Coreen Flemming of Toronto, all of whom had specific memories of the summers, and from Clare Gass's own handwritten "School and Work Record" in the possession of Trudy Henderson of Halifax. See Appendix i for a chronological ordering of Clare Gass's life. Re post-war jobs for nurses, see CNA, Nursing Sisters' Association of Canada Papers, CNATN President J. Gunn to Sir James Lougheed, Minister, Department of Soldiers Civil Re-establishment, 27 March 1919. The American Association of Medical Social Workers granted emeritus membership to Clare Gass in 1955 (letter from President Pauline Ryman to Clare Gass, 2 8 June 1955, in the possession of Trudy Henderson of Halifax). NA, Macdonald Papers, "Correspondence," A.E Duguid to Mrs Alex McMurtry [Isabella Strathy] 25 August 1923, 8 September 1923; I. McMurtry to "Scotty" [A.F.D.], 28 August 1923. In McMurtry's reply is the hint of a woman's post-war critique of official military narrative. Jean Gunn, the president of the CNATN predicted the silence and may even have imposed it as early as 1919 with her public comment in The Canadian Nurse: "the record of their cheerfulness under every hard264

N O T E S TO P A G E S x x x i x - 3

37

38

39

40

41

ship, the long hours of work with no time for rest during an active time on the front line, calling forth every bit of endurance each one possessed, their courage during air raids when hospitals were bombed, on the sea when ships were torpedoed, or the comfort they brought to our dying and wounded, will never be recorded." "The Services of Canadian Nurses and Voluntary Aids During the War," 1979. Halifax Mail Star, 10 November 1997; Robert Duncan, 'John McCrae's War," NFB documentary, 1998, and e-mail communication to S. Mann, 30 August 1999. See note 8 of the notes to the diary for 1915, which raises questions about the precise timing of her poetic entries. On women's diaries, see Bunkers and Huff, eds., Inscribing the Daily; Buss, "The Dear Domestic Circle,'" and Mapping Our Selves; Cline, Women's Diaries; Conrad et al., No Place Like Home; Lensink, "Expanding the Boundaries of Criticism"; Mann, "Domesticated Travel"; Wylie, Reading Between the Lines. Although the diary entries become shorter in 1917 and 1918, Clare made time for writing many letters home, almost none of which has survived. Extracts from the few that I have been able to find are included in Appendix 3. The forbidding of cameras appears in a number of sources: Osier Library, Archibald Fonds, E.A. Archibald to daughter Margaret, 26 June 1915; NA, MG 30, £290, Sophie Hoerner Papers, Hoerner to Mollie, 31 December 1915; Fetherstonhaugh, No. 3, 230. The War Diary for No. 3 records the speedy transferral of nurses away from venereal cases, 27 February 1919. On the winter of 1917, John McCrae is reported as commenting "To go to bed is a nightmare and to get up a worse one," 25 January 1917, quoted in Fetherstonhaugh, McGill at War, 52. See also Morton and Granatstein, Marching to Armageddon, 120. Montreal Star, 11 October 1952. NOTES TO DIARY

1915

i Mina Margaret Grant (1871-1948), known as "Granty" throughout the diary, took Clare under her wing sometime between 1912 and 1914 when Clare contracted scarlet fever from one of her private duty patients. The doctor in charge of the case had assumed Clare would be 265

NOTES TO PAGES 4-6

2

3

4

5

immune to the disease since she had had it as a student nurse. At the time of Clare's enlistment she and "Granty" were living in the same household on Tupper Street, likely where they met. According to the Montreal City Directory for 1914-15 and 1915-16, a Mrs RE. Millward, widow, headed that household. Judging from a letter from Clare to her mother, dated 28 August 1915 (see Appendix 3), there may well have been other nurses living in the same house. This would fit an economic pattern of the time, when widows took in boarders to make ends meet. Grant, a devout Catholic, was secretary to the president of Cassidy's, a wholesale china company in Montreal. Information gleaned from archival sources and from conversations with nieces of Clare Gass: Elizabeth Anderson, Geraldine Brenton, Trudy Henderson, Roslyn MacPhee in Nova Scotia, April 1999, and from a telephone conversation with niece Mary Brown in Oakville, 16 January 2000; letters from G. Brenton to S. Mann, 6 June 1999, 21 January 2000. Most of the women's names mentioned in the diary are those of Canadian nursing sisters with the same unit as Clare: No. 3 Canadian General Hospital (McGill) (No. 3 CGH). The naming pattern seems to reveal the nature of the friendship: a first name or a last name (occasionally rendered as a diminutive) appears to indicate closeness whereas the addition of Miss or Mrs establishes distance and perhaps a hierarchy of age and status. The naming pattern is likely a carry-over from Clare Gass's private schooling and nursing training where "Miss Gass" would be the required form of address. See Appendix 5 for a list of the original members of the unit. Alice Mary Cooper (1881-19?) did her nursing training at the same time as Clare Gass: 1909-12. Her military file in the National Archives suggests an imposing woman: six years older than Clare, taller, considerably larger, and English by birth: National Archives of Canada (NA), MG 150, Ace 1992-3/166, Box 1965-45; attestation paper available via ArchiviaNet. The initials M.A. were not easily decipherable in the original manuscript of the diary. They only became clear as the story of Martha Allan began taking shape from diary entries of 13 and 17 March. See notes 5 and 6. The M.A. referred to here is the same one mentioned in the entry for 10 March and is, I believe, the unnamed subject of the letter in the Tele266

NOTES TO PAGES 6-7

graph. According to that letter there was "disaffection in the ranks" of the McGill group of nurses then training in Quebec because of the reported presence of a "young lady" who was neither a trained nor a graduate nurse. The letter-writer, "Canadian," appalled that McGill might sanction incompetence (if in nursing, why not in surgery?), urged an end to "Mammon and Graft" in appointments; Quebec Telegraph, 13 March 1915: 7- The only M.A. on the list of original members of the unit (see Appendix 5) is Mrs Maud Austin but she is a graduate of the Royal Victoria Hospital School of Nursing and the "Mrs" would exclude her from being referred to as a young lady. She is in fact a clergyman's widow, described by another nurse of the same unit as "much older than I am" (NA, MG 30, £290, Sophie Hoerner Papers, S. Hoerner to "Dearest," 20 May 1915). On the subsequent list of reinforcements (Fetherstonhaugh, No. 3, 263), however, a Marguerite Martha Allan appears among the nursing sisters. I am convinced this is the same Martha Allan identified in note 6 below; in which case she would indeed be a young lady - age twenty in 1915 - too young even to be admitted to a nursing school much less graduate from one, and too young as well for the Canadian Army Medical Corps (CAMC). "Mammon and Graft" would then be a reference to the Allan family fortune and influence, part of which included close connections with the MGH, where, according to the Annual Report for 1913, Sir Montagu Allan (Martha Allan's father) was President of the Board of Management. Indeed it is unlikely that anyone but a member of such a prominent family would elicit a letter to a newspaper editor. 6 Martha Allan (1895-1942), daughter of Sir Hugh Montagu Allan, of Montreal shipping and banking fame shows up later in the diary with the McGill Hospital unit in France. From the comments of Clare Gass in her diary and those of Major (Dr) Edward Archibald in his letters from France to his wife in Montreal, Martha Allan seems to have been more of a nuisance than a help. She later had a significant place in amateur theatre in Canada as founder of the Montreal Repertory Theatre. 7 Judging from subsequent diary references Ruth Loggie (1883-1968) was Clare Gass' closest nursing companion during her years with the CAMC. They probably met during nursing training at the Montreal General: Ruth graduated in 1910 and Clare began in 1909. Ruth was 267

NOTES TO P A G E 9

born in Burnt Church, New Brunswick, one of six children of Donald Loggie and Mary Jane Anderson, whose families had worked together as fish and general merchants. She and Clare kept in touch after the war; Ruth's name was listed at the same address as Clare's in the General Directory of the Overseas' Nursing Sisters' Association of Canada in 1931. NA, RG 150, Ace 1992-3/166, Box 5717-28, military file of Ruth Loggie; e-mail communication from Fred Farrell, manager, Private Sector Records, Provincial Archives of New Brunswick, 20 Dec. 1999; Jon Johnson and Colin Campbell, "Nursing Sister Ruth Loggie #3 Canadian General Hospital (McGill)," typescript, Chatham Public Library, Miramichi, New Brunswick; McGill University Archives (MUA), RG 96, Ctn. 437, file 854, "Wartime Nursing." 8 This homily, in poetic form, is the first of many to appear in the diary. The author is Howard Arnold Walter (1883-1918) and the piece was set to music (one of the versions is dated 1911) and sung as a hymn. Canadian Youth Hymnal (TorontorUnited Church Publishing House 1939), hymn #99. Although the writing is clearly Clare's, it is nonetheless different in size and ink from that which precedes and follows it. She may have written the piece into the space later. 9 Sam Hughes (1853-1921) was minister of Militia and Defence (1911-16) in the Conservative Government of Robert Borden. His energy and enthusiasm for things military and imperial were matched by his autocratic tendencies, favouritism, and the occasional spectacular lack of judgment (notably in relation to the Ross Rifle, which jammed when used repeatedly, as equipment for Canadian soldiers). His knighdiood, awarded in August 1915, appears to have been political recompense for his agreeing to allow the British to name senior military appointments. See Morton and Granatstein, Marching to Armageddon, 106-7; Haycock, Sam Hughes, 273. Clare's attaching a "Sir" to his name in May - she refers to him only as Sam on August 5 as does Fetherstonhaugh, No. 3, 21 - has to mean that she added this sentence later to the diary. The other clue is that the entries preceeding and following the one commencing with "Col Hughes" were originally written in pencil and overwritten in ink. That particular sentence is in ink only. The Colonel Hughes referred to is William St Pierre Hughes (1863-1940), younger brother of the minister and commanding officer of the 2ist Battalion. 268

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12-17

i o On 7 May 1915 the British passenger liner Lusitania was torpedoed by German U-boats off Ireland with a loss of life of close to 1200. The fact that Clare does not mention it until a week later could indicate the strength of military discipline, the control of rumour, or her own ability to suppress fear. Dr Archibald was aware of the sinking as of 8 May but "we were warned not to tell the nurses for fear of alarming them too much." He added "Of course this was quite useless. The next day one of the nurses asked me if I knew anything more definite about the sinking of the Lusit. The captain confirmed the report in a couple of days." (McGill University, Osier Library, E.A. Archibald to "Dear Girl" [wife Agnes], 10 May 1915.) From London, Clare does comment: "I cannot get over the fact that the Lusitania went to the bottom & we have arrived safely in England." (Postcard from C. Gass to Granty, 17 May [1915]; card in possession of E. Anderson). 11 Her mention of troops for the Dardanelles is a reference to infantry being sent to support what had initially been expected to be a purely naval attempt to secure the Straits between the Black Sea (Russian ports) and the Aegean-Mediterranean. With the landing of troops on the Gallipoli Penninsula, on the north-western shore of the Straits, the roles were reversed, the Navy providing support for the troops but doing so from a distance because of underwater mines and submarines. British naval ships therefore clustered in the relatively safe harbour of Mudros on the island of Lemnos. It was to this island that Canadian nursing sisters were sent later in 1915 (see Gass entry at 8 August) as the Gallipoli campaign turned into a disaster. It was abandoned in midDecember 1915. 12 This is a first trip to Europe for Clare Gass. To the usual list of London sights, she, as a military nurse, adds St Thomas Hospital, the home of the (Florence) Nightingale (1829-1910) Training School for Nurses. 13 Her mention of the Strathcona Horse is the first of many military units, facts and rumours that she will report. In this case her interest is personal - her brother Gerald was with the Strathconas. Trench warfare and mechanization rendered cavalry much less useful in the war. Cavalry members would therefore frequently serve as infantrymen. The instance noted in the diary was one such occasion. Gerald was later in the Signal Corps. 269

NOTE TO P A G E 17

Majolica (from the island Majorca) is a glazed Italian tableware, originally white enamel with metallic colours. Clare may have known of it through Granty's work at Cassidy's china company in Montreal. Granty was so knowledgeable about china that one of Clare's nieces thought she had been a buyer for Cassidy's. Conversation with Mary Brown, 16 January 2000. 14 "Little Pelletier" is Juliette Pelletier (1891-1970) from Quebec City, daughter of career soldier and South African War veteran Colonel Oscar Charles Casgrain Pelletier and grand-daughter of Sir Charles E. Casgrain, lawyer, politician, senator, and lieutenant-governor of Quebec 1908-11. Juliettte studied at the Ursuline Convent in Quebec City before taking nursing training at the Montreal General Hospital, 1911-14, where she and Clare would undoubtedly have met. She argued her way out of her final stage of nursing training - that involving the diet kitchen (she claimed later that she never could cook because of that) - so that she could enrol as a nurse and go overseas with the first Canadian contingent in the autumn of 1914. Her father was not at all pleased with her decision. "Only trollops follow the army," he remarked and although he later regretted the comment she never let him forget it and it has come down the generations as family lore. During her nursing training, in the half-day off per week allowed the students, she met fellow Quebecer Stuart Ramsey, a McGill medical graduate of 1912. The two went overseas at the same time, though not on the same ship, and Captain Ramsey got round all sorts of army regulations so he could see her from his base in England and hers in France, with No. i Canadian General Hospital at Etaples. She was subsequently attached to No. i Canadian Stationary Hospital and sent with that unit to serve on Lemnos and in Salonika between August 1915 and February 1916. After a stint with a hospital in Brighton, England, she took on transport duty on a hospital ship to Canada and became the matron of the Valcartier Military Hospital from May 1917 to October 1918. She eventually caught up with Stuart in India after the war, marrying him the very day of her arrival, and the pair lived there before returning to Canada and settling in Montreal where Stuart became a prominent ophthalmologist and Juliette undertook extensive volunteer work. She was, for example, the founding president of the Overseas 270

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19-28

Nursing Sisters' Association of Canada in 1929 and very active with the St John Ambulance. The Second World War called her to a military role again, this time with higher rank. She was a captain at the officers' training centre at Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue and then a major and officer in command of recruiting for Military District 4 (Montreal). My thanks for most of this family information to Marguerite Ramsey Mackinnon of Montreal, daughter of Juliette Pelletier, in a phone conversation 26 June 1999 and a visit 10 September 1999. She confirmed that her mother was indeed "little" as Clare Gass describes her - five feet tall and ninety-nine pounds - and she kindly showed me a scrap-book of press clippings about her mother (primarily from the World War II but tracing her prewar career) as well as two brief (10-15 Pages) typescript copies, one the World War I recollections of her father and the other a sketchy diary of her mother's first year overseas. See also Canadian Nurses' Association Archives (CNA), papers of the Nursing Sisters' Association of Canada; Nicholson, Canada's Nursing Sisters, 107, and MacDermot, History of the School, 59. Pelletier and Gass knew each other long after the war: Elizabeth Anderson recalls visits by Pelletier to her aunt's home in Montreal; telephone conversation, 4 February 2000. 15 Dr Kenneth Cameron later wrote a history of No. i Canadian General Hospital in which he described the nurses from No. 3 CGH who arrived on 22 May 1915 as "a carefully selected group of the most efficient graduates of the Montreal General Hospital and the Royal Victoria Hospital"; Cameron, History of No. i, 176. 16 Sophie Hoerner wrote home the same day to tell of five seriously wounded patients, likely not the three walking cases with whom she and Clare had conversed. "There are five very bad cases, heart-rending, and the stories they tell of what they see in the trenches are harrowing. They are not boastful, any of them, but seem so glad to find someone that is interested in them. They say that they like the Canadian Sisters and that it is Heaven here. Nearly all of them want to go back to England just for a day and they would be quite happy to go back to the trenches. They are all English." NA, Hoerner Papers, Sophie Hoerner to Mollie, 8 June 1915. 17 Her mention of Festubert is a reference to a series of battles in that neighbourhood during the spring offensive by the French and British 271

NOTES TO PAGES 29-36

18

19

20

21

22

through May and again in mid-June 1915. The casualty lists Clare was reading on 3 June probably reflect the late May fighting. "Hindous" is a reference to the Indian soldiers of the British Indian Army Corps, which served in France from September 1914 to October 1915. They had separate hospital facilities without nursing sisters; one of these hospitals was located in the former Jesuit College to which No. 3 CGH would move in January 1916. Laurie is Laurence Gass, a cousin of Clare's whom she met in Montreal. This poem, with her notation, is the only extant documentary support for a family story that the two were in love. As a graduate mining engineer from McGill, Gass enlisted in the fall of 1915 as a lieutenant with the i65th Siege Battery; Conversation with E. Anderson, April 1999; NA, RG 150, Ace 1992-3/166, Box 3436-27, military file of Laurence Gass. These two poems also appear to have been written into the diary at another time. The first, a well-known recital song of the time, was presumably what Captain Johnson was singing. This poem does appear to match the day's record, both in penmanship and sentiment. Whether Gass is quoting or writing this unattributed piece, she is revealing a very early recognition - she had received her first patients on 31 May - that the male virtues of soldiering have been shattered. For a scholarly analysis of that shattering, see Leed, No Man's Land. Combat and Identity in World War I. Peeps into Picardy is a charming history-cum-guide to the north-east region of France where Clare was located. Quite unlike modern Guides Bleus or Michelins, it is a small book written in essay style, full of legends, religion, and warfare, the latter mostly involving English and French on opposing sides. Clare took her sight-seeing seriously and Peeps, which she seems just to have acquired, became a constant companion. For example, a month earlier, on May 25, she recorded something which Peeps disputes, that the Church in Etaples was built by the English. And the spelling with which she records an outing to Hardelot Castle on 21 June suggests she has not yet encountered Peeps. A month later, however (see her entry for 29 July), she has clearly read Peeps, 74-6, before visiting the little church in Wirwignes. The copy of Peeps in the McGill library is signed H.S. Birkett, Camiers. From the state of the book, the

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Commanding Officer of No. 3 CGH did not read it. 23 Captain (Dr) Reginald Malone of No. 3 CGH. In a tented camp, one might assume that the instrument he is playing is a violin. But in fact there was a piano in camp, first in the Officers' Mess and then in the nurses' Ante-room; NA, Department of Militia and Defence, RG 9, in c-io, vol.457i, folder 3, file i, H.S. Birkett to H.B. Yates, 25 November 1915. In letters to his wife Major Archibald debated about having his violin sent over and finally decided against it. No. 3 CGH, after it was established more permanently at Boulogne in the early spring of 1916, eventually had a thirty-piece orchestra, all male; Fetherstonhaugh, No. 3, 104. 24 Once again, the ink and writing suggest another time for the placing of this poem on the diary page of 7 July 1915. 25 The Reverend Allan P. Shatford was one of 447 Canadian chaplains who served overseas with the Canadian Expeditionary Forces (CEF) . In France between 1915 and 1918 he was one of the more active chaplains, engaged in "social Christianity." Crerar refers to him as a "Montreal Anglican," but he had earlier been a resident of North Sydney, Cape Breton, and father of Sadie, an Edgehill pupil at the same time as Clare Gass; Crerar, Padres in No Man's Land 116, 119, 128, 162, 168, 178-9; Edgehill, "Register 1903-1904," Calendar, 1904-1905, 20. 26 Durbar tents were from India, a gift to the British War Office. Large enough to serve as a hospital ward, they had an outer and inner shell, each shell made of layers of material, the innermost and visible one of very decorative and coloured cotton. Clare was right to be concerned about their durability. 27 The "rumours of reverses" were true. On 30 July British troops near Hooge retreated when the enemy sprayed liquid fire (burning petrol) over the British trenches. The Russian "defeat" had been going on steadily since 18 July as German troops advanced eastward into Poland, which they continued to do until mid-August. 28 From the penmanship this poem too appears to have been written at some other moment in the space available on i August. The poet is Canon Frederick George Scott (1861-1944), the most well known of Canadian chaplains. The poem was initially published in The Times of London, 21 April 1915, (the day before the beginning of the Second 273

NOTES TO P A G E S 51-5

29

30 31

32

33

Battle of Ypres and the first use of chlorine gas) and subsequently in a tiny collection of Scott's wartime poems, In the Battle Silences, 10-11. Only in The Times version is there a reference to "Holy Week" during which time (28 March - 4 April 1915) Scott was in Estaires and Clare Gass not yet in Europe. In neither version is there a mention of Ypres, as suggested on the title line in the Gass diary. In Scott's collection the poem gives a location, Sailly, a tiny village south west of Cambrai, nowhere near \pres. The poem itself certainly gives credence to Jonathan Vance's thesis in Death So Noble, notably ch. 2: "Christ in Flanders," where he argues that in memories of the war soldiers were turned into part of Christ's sacrifice, giving up their lives, as He had, to redeem humanity. Scott's own account, The Great War as I Saw It, expresses the same idea. See note 9 re Sam Hughes. Clearly there was a family connection with Hughes even though the Gass family was staunchly Liberal. Clare's father Robert Gass was, among other civic undertakings, a recruiting officer in Shubenacadie in the early years of the war. Sir William Maxwell ("Max") Aitken (1879-1964), Lord Beaverbrook as of 1917, was a Canadian businessman who made his money in Canada but his political and newspaper career in England. During the war he was Hughes's personally appointed general representative for Canada at the front and took on the task of keeping Canadian war records. Morton and Granatstein, Marching to Armageddon, 108. There was no major action near Hooge at this time. Comfort bags, made by the thousands by women volunteers in Canada, were designed for general distribution to wounded soldiers. They could contain a variety of items: candy, chewing gum, chocolate, socks, handkerchiefs, bootlaces, cocoa, playing cards, tobacco, soup tablets, writing paper, sometimes even a personal (though anonymous) note; Wilson, Ontario and the First World War, Ixxxv n.4By the war news not being good, she is referring to the success of German troops against Russia in eastern Europe and the fear that this would now permit Germany to fling all its strength westward. There were also British losses in Gallipoli in mid-August. Her mention of eleven German ships being sunk may be an example of the frequent faulty reports that circulated. The only naval action in the Baltic anywhere near this date is the sinking of one German ship by a

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British submarine on 19 August 1915. 34 A zeppelin, named for its German inventor, Count von Zeppelin, was a balloon-like rigid airship, originally used for reconnaissance and then to carry bombs. English and French versions were called dirigibles. 35 See Appendix 3 for correspondence of Clare Gass with her brother and her mother, in which she argues strongly against his enlisting. The family would have received the first plea, dated 24 July, but the second, dated 28 August, would have crossed this letter from her father announcing Blanchard's enlistment. According to the attestation paper in Blanchard's military personnel file, he enlisted in the 85th Battalion (the one to which Clare refers later) on 18 August 1915 and gave a birth date of 7 August 1897, which would give him the minimum age of eighteen required of the army; NA, RG 150, Ace 1992-93/166, Box 3436-15. All the references to his birthday in the Gass diary indicate that he was born 15 October 1898. 36 Margaret Clotilde Macdonald (1874-1948) was matron-in-chief of the Canadian Nursing Sisters as of September 1914. (See Introduction, xix). Her brother, Captain Ronald St John Macdonald, was a doctor with No. 3 CGH. Lady Perry is likely the wife of Colonel Sir Allan Perry, the commanding officer of No.22 British General Hospital (Harvard), located nearby. 37 Sir William Osier (1849-1919) was an internationally known Canadian medical doctor and educator who trained and taught, initially at McGill and then at the University of Pennsylvania, Johns Hopkins, and Oxford. His knighthood was awarded in 1911. His son Edward Revere was with No. 3 CGH but transferred to the Royal Artillery and was killed in 1917. Dictionary of Canadian Biography (DCS) 14, 799-804. Fetherstonhaugh (No. 3, 25) has these visits happening on 8 September. 38 Captain MacMillan was one of the medical officers of No. 3 CGH. Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, author of "In Flanders' Fields," was the officer in charge of medicine. See Appendix 5. A veteran of the South African War, McCrae was an outstanding physician in Montreal before the First War. His initial role with the Canadian Expeditionary Force was as brigade surgeon with the ist Brigade, Canadian Field Artillery; DCB 14, 679-80.

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40

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42

62-3

Most of the men mentioned in the diary are the medical staff of No. 3 CGH, except for those she mentions during the shorter times she spent with other units. With an officer rank which she seldom omits (captain, major, colonel), they were all also doctors. Other men, to whom she refers by last name only (see, for example, the entry at 7 November 1915) were privates, mostly medical students, and subordinate in status to her. Bluebird was the name given to the Canadian nursing sisters because of the colour of their uniform. The delight in pastoral settings could be interpreted as the contrast to the busy work world of the hospital and the nurses' own "lines." Leed comments on the pastoral motif in war accounts of soldiers; No Man's Land, 121-3. Clare is identifying gas gangrene here, a particularly frightful form of toxic bacterial infection that could occur in a wound. The bacteria release carbon dioxide which, if unchecked (by opening the wound to air - and sometimes to maggots - or by amputating the limb) enters the bloodstream and kills the patient. The Ypres battle to which she is referring is the Second Battle of "ipres, 22 April - 25 May 1915. The battle is particularly remembered for the first use of poison gas as a weapon. In this case the gas was chlorine, visible as a greenish-yellow cloud that was heavier than air and therefore sank into the trenches and shell-holes. Affected soldiers vomited, wept, and, in the most severe cases, suffocated. Later in the war phosgene and mustard gas added to the horrors. McCrae was present as a doctor during the fighting and the devastation was both the inspiration for his famous poem and the beginning of his own untimely demise in January 1918. Sir George Makins (1853-1933), one of a number of surgeons- general with the British Royal Army Medical Corps, was consulting surgeon, based at Etaples. Major-General G.C.Jones (1864-19?), a Canadian, was the overseas director of Medical Services until 1916 when Sam Hughes fired him because of a scathing report on the Canadian Army Medical Corps (CAMC) by Dr Herbert Bruce. Morton and Granatstein elaborate in Marching to Armageddon, 137-8. The visits of prominent people to the hospital constituted a two-way street of mutual appreciation. Visitors encouraged the staff and patients while their favorable and always quoted - comments served to keep the McGill unit in the 276

NOTES TO PAGES 64-76

43

44

45

46 47

48

49

limelight and thereby the recipient of official favour in England and voluntary contributions from home. Both the official War Diary of the unit, in the National Archives, and Fetherstonhaugh, whose No. 3 is based on that document, detail all these visits. The surest news from and of the front was this order to evacuate patients from the hospital; it meant more were coming from another battle. In this case a major French and then British offensive was underway along the Champagne front 21-30 September and then again 6-11 October. Her references here and at 27 September 7, 10, 11 and 15 October are all to the fighting along this line. Her news of the war comes from newspapers, official communiques and rumour. Rumour travelled faster than the papers and the communiques but all three were notoriously unreliable. Whatever the source, the news was always at least a day or two, sometimes more, after the fact. The date would suggest that the "curly-headed boy" can only be one or other of her two brothers then at the front, Gerald and Cyril. According to Gerald's daughter, Cyril had "kinky curly" hair wheras Gerald's was wavy; it would seem therefore that it is Cyril she is watching for. Letter from G. Brenton to S. Mann, 6 June 1999. Harold Begbie (1871-1929) was a prolific, outspoken, and controversial British author and poet. He was already scorned by Canadian nurses for unfavorable comments about their uniform (Clint, Our Bit, 41) and they may well have kept an eye out for his barbs. I have hunted in vain for the source of his comment about the slight nature of wounds. The 25th Battalion is brother Cyril's unit. Wolsey [Wolseley?] Kit is a form of portable camp bedding, in all liklihood named for or designed by Sir Garnet Wolseley (1833-1913), whose brilliant career as a soldier was matched by his enthusiasm for army reform. It may be the same as the "Telescopic Camp Bedstead" mentioned as part of the camp kit for nurses when on active service. See appendix B in Appendix Two. Hubert Neilson tents were Canadian designed hospital tents adopted by the British government. The designer was Canadian army physician Colonel John Louis Hubert Neilson (1845—1925). McCrae's poem shows up here (with the same proviso noted earlier (notes 8 and 20) about the timing of her placing poems in the diary), 277

NOTE TO P A G E 78

Ambulance train en route for Blighty (NA, PA 975) in Sophie Hoerner's papers, and in the letters of Dr Archibald to his wife. Dr Archibald, a close family friend of McCrae's, kept an eye out for possible matches for bachelor McCrae among the nursing sisters. According to Archibald, McCrae could on occasion be rather stiff and domineering, and was not always liked by the nurses. He would then make amends and Archibald would cheerily report progress to his wife. Might it be possible that McCrae's poem, which appeared in print in Punch in December 1915 was a peace offering? McGill University, Osier Library, Archibald Fonds, E.W. Archibald to his wife, 26 November 1915, 28 December 1915. NA, Hoerner Papers, Sophie Hoerner to Mollie, 24 November 1915. 50 The Sunday Observer, subsequently The McGilliken, begun in October 1915, was the short-lived news sheet of No. 3 CGH. Put together by former members of the McGill Daily, the three page paper was initially typewritten. Once access to a printing press was possible, the paper became more substantial, the one copy in the McGill University 278

NOTES TO PAGES

81-97

Archives, dated 15 February 1916, professionally printed. The editorial in that issue recounts the production of the paper. It consisted mostly of light-hearted reporting of the events of the hospital. See "Senior Meds. Returning," McGillDaily, 3 December 1915, and "News of McGill Hospital as Heard by 'McGilliken,'" McGillDaily, 7 December 1915 in which most of Vol. i, no. 3 of The McGilliken is reprinted. Also MUA, RG 38, Faculty of Medicine, Container 14, File 259: "De Nobis," McGilliken, 15 February 1916, 4. After thirteen issues, the newspaper came to an end as mounting numbers of sick and wounded put demands on the entire hospital staff. 51 Blighty is the term used by the British army in India, adopted from Urdu slang, to refer to England. For a soldier to "have a Blighty" meant passage to England. Since the only way to get to England while on active service (except for leave) was to have a wound of sufficient severity to warrant the trip, the word also came to mean the wound itself. 52 This hearing and spreading of rumour (see entry for 29 November 1915) and the waiting for things to happen is the nurses' variant of soldiers' principal function: waiting (Morton, When Your Number's Up, 17). See introduction (xxxiii) and note 32, for the commanding officer's opposition to the nurses being billeted in Boulogne. 53 Clare tucked the sprig of flowers into her diary at this page where it survived until 1997. NOTES TO DIARY i g i 6

1 Given that Clare was a fan of the much-heralded contemporary British author Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) - she knew much of his poetry by heart and had brought a book of his with her from home - her matter-of-fact recording of this incident is odd. Presumably she was sleeping during his visit since she was on night duty at the time. 2 Marie Lohr (1890-1975) was an Australian-born actress whose English career began at age eleven at the Garrick theatre in London and continued until 1966 on stage and 1968 in film. 3 Colonel Yates was actually the second in command of No. 3 CGH, subordinate to Colonel Birkett, the commanding officer. Dr Archibald's letters to his wife suggest that Yates was the more congenial of the two. 279

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97-8

4 Arthur Rackham (1867-1939), painter and watercolorist, was best known as an illustrator. Among the many books he illustrated was J.M. Barnes's Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens. Given Clare's fascination with Peter Pan - Granty sent her a copy for Christnas 1915 (see Diary entry 28 Dec. 1915) and she once signed a card to Granty as "Peter" (2 Sept. [1917]; card in possession of Geraldine Brenton) - she probably knew that edition and hence recognized the trees near Taplow as Rakham-like. 5 Blanche Lefroy had been the "Lady Principal" at Edgehill between 1897 and 1905, years spanning Clare's schooling there. Miss Lefroy, formerly a teacher at the Cheltenham Ladies College in England, headed a staff of ten, among them another teacher with whom Clare maintained a friendship all her life. Dorothy Mills (1879-1966) had a lengthy post-Edgehill career as history head at Brearley School for Girls in New York, during which she published history texts. She visited Clare on numerous occasions in Montreal and the two were still corresponding at the time of Mills's death in England in 1966. Edgehill Calendar, 1904-5; notes from D. Mills to C. Gass tucked into a copy of Mills' text The Middle Ages (New York: Putnam's 1935) in the possession of Geraldine Brenton of Halifax. The Provost uncle mentioned here would seem to be the Reverend John Richard Magrath, provost of Queen's College, Oxford, since 1878; Oxford University, Calendar, 1916; Who's Who, 1917. 6 The University of King's College, now in Halifax, was originally located in Windsor, Nova Scotia, close to Edgehill. It had both a collegiate school and a university. The program at Edgehill prepared senior girls to sit the examinations at King's for an "Associate in Arts"; Clare Gass took the exam in 1905. Despite the strict sexual segregation of the schools, Clare would have encountered some of the young men at King's. In the 19205 a fire destroyed the University. It was rebuilt in Halifax, but the boys' collegiate school remained in Windsor. In 1976 it amalgamated with Edgehill to form the present-day King's-Edgehill School, which, because of the King's connection, can advertise itself as Canada's first independent school founded in 1788. (Edgehill itself dates from 1891.) Information from Linda Davison-Landymore (and from her business card), director of Development and Alumni Affairs, King's-Edgehill School, April 1999. 280

NOTES TO PAGES 99-1O7

7 An illustration of the strength of rumour during the war. It was a fire that destroyed all but the library of the original Parliament buildings on 3 February 1916. The Times of London carried the story. 8 Tobit is the main character and father of Tobias in the Book of Tobit, part of the Apocrypha which was included in the King James version of the Bible until the early nineteenth century. The story dates from the late pre-Christian era and was a popular subject with artists of the Middle Ages. 9 Mrs B. has me stumped. There was a reference in The Times the next day to a Mrs Baldwin charged with receiving stolen zinc from two schoolboys and fined 405. It is surely not possible that such a tiny case - moreover not a trial - would interest Clare Gass. 10 After much fruitless sleuthing I concluded that Alex i must be the name of a ward in the hospital (like the F i that she mentions on 8 February) . An obscure publication about the Canadian Red Cross confirms this conclusion. Queen Alexandra was so pleased with the hospital at Taplow that she allowed her name to be used for a ward. In nurses' parlance, one part of the Queen Alexandra Ward became "Alex i"; Moore, The Maple Leaf's Red Cross, 92, 103 (note). Apparently something distressing happened in the ward on 13 February. The official War Diary of the Duchess of Connaught's Red Cross Hospital, Taplow, does not record anything for that day. Farther afield there was no bad war news out of Alexandria anywhere around this date. Nursing sisters from No. i Canadian Stationary Hospital were near Alexandria at that point, recovering from their time on Lemnos, but nothing in Mabel Clint's Our Bit suggests anything out of the ordinary around this date. 11 Along with the military wounded and sick, No. 3 CGH served the local population - presumably males only - in the surrounding area who required hospitalization. 12 Exposure to damp and cold can cause chilblains: hands and feet become inflamed, itchy, and sometimes ulcerated. There is no known cure; the condition disappears in time. Sophie Hoerner complained of them too; NA, Hoerner Papers, Hoerner to Mrs Nichols, 31 January 1916. 13 Standing for long hours with waterlogged boots and socks in the cold, muck, and corruption of the trenches (water, waste, rats, corpses) could literally erode the feet. The condition - numbness, infection, 281

NOTES TO PAGES 109-22

14 15

16

17

18

19

even gangrene poisoning - came to be known as trench feet. In severe cases the only cure was amputation. Daughter of Lt. Col. John Elder, the Officer in charge of surgery in the McGill unit. In November 1917 he became the commanding officer. The shortlived "Easter uprising" in Ireland began on Easter Monday, 24 April 1916, when a "Citizen Army" led by James Connolly (1868-1916) and "Irish Volunteers" led by Padriac Pearse (1879-1916) took over the General Post Office in Dublin and proclaimed a provisional government for the Irish Republic. The "Irish question" had plagued British politics throughout most of the latter half of the nineteenth century, with debates over some measure of political autonomy for Ireland always encountering government procrastination and stubborn opposition from the northern part of Ireland. That the uprising was intended to take advantage of Britain's preoccupation with die war effort in Europe is clear from the involvement of Sir Roger Casement (1864-1916), who had arranged a shipment of arms from Germany to Ireland and had come to Ireland aboard a German submarine. He was arrested for treason before the uprising began. The uprising itself was snuffed out by British soldiers within five days. Most of the leaders, including Casement, Connolly, and Pearse, were executed. Clare Gass's report (see 30 April) that Connolly died of wounds is inaccurate. Except for a Christmas salutation noted on 25 December 1916, this is the last poem to appear in the Gass diary. She may have been increasingly busy with less time for poetic reflection. Or the war may have begun to undermine the very security the poems seemed to offer. Field post cards were printed cards with brief optional messages which a soldier merely ticked off, then added his signature. Designed as timesavers for weary soldiers and their anxious relatives, the cards also facilitated the censor's task. Q.A. is short form for the name of the British nursing sisters' unit: Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service. These are the "Women of Britain, garbed in gray" of the poem at i March 1916. The frightful battle near Ypres is that of Mount Sorrel, 2-13 June 1916, in which Canadians first lost, then regained, territory just east of Ypres. It is to this fighting that Clare is referring on 4 and 6 June as well. The only good that came of it all was the final recognition that the Ross 282

NOTES TO P A G E S 122-35

Rifle, with which Canadians were equipped, was useless. 20 The frightful battle in the North Sea is the battle of Jutland, 31 May i June 1916. 21 Horatio Herbert Lord Kitchener (1850-1916), a career soldier in the British Imperial service, served in the Middle East, South Africa, India, and Egypt before being appointed secretary for War in the British Cabinet in 1914. He was responsible for raising huge numbers of soldiers as part of the "new armies." 22 Here Clare has news on the very day: the major British and French offensive of 1916 along the Somme began i July and continued until 18 November with horrendous loss of life. Her references on 5, 8, 10 July, 2, 16, 27 September, and 2 October are all to the on-going battles of the Somme. 23 In a very busy day Clare nonetheless made time to write to Cyril enclosing a letter from their father. See Appendix 3, 7 July [1916] for some indication of family traits and beliefs. 24 Had the Canadian military required or used women volunteers to the extent the British did, drawing on an immense pool from the Voluntary Aid Detachments (hence the name for the women: VADS), Martha Allan would have been in that category. As an untrained Canadian woman of considerable social and financial standing, she would have been the Canadian equivalent of the most well-known of the British VADS, Vera Brittain. Unfortunately she has not left us a Testament of Youth like Brittain's. Allan joined the CAMC through family influence and once there, as the Gass diary suggests, she encountered the hostility of the graduate professional nurses. She flaunted her independence, disobeyed the rules, dined with the Colonel, and resigned for reasons other than marriage or family illness. She would thus call into question the nurses' sense of themselves as professionals, as military personnel, and as women, a potent combination that had allowed them to get to Europe and to the war in the first place. Sharon Ouditt's fascinating study of British women and the war, Fighting Forces, Writing Women, notably chapter i "Nuns and Lovers," helped me clarify my thinking on the elusive Martha Allan and the reaction of No. 3 CGH nurses to her. Clare Gass herself may have been a bit ambivalent about Martha Allan: besides her comments in the diary, there was a tiny newspaper clipping tucked into 283

NOTES TO P A G E S 137-42

25

26

27

28

29

30

the diary: a photo of "Miss Martha Allen" [sic] with the caption "who was with the R.A.M.C. in France, now doing war work in London." This may be a clipping from a Canadian paper, in which case it might have been sent to Clare, perhaps by Granty. Would Clare, on seeing it, have said "Humph" or "She'll be happier in that milieu"? The Canadian VAD system, tiny compared to Britain's, is under investigation by Linda Quiney in a history Ph.D. thesis nearing completion at the University of Ottawa. Two contemporary references are Abbott, "Lectures on the History of Nursing," 149-50 and Gunn, "The Services of Canadian Nurses and Voluntary Aids During the War," 1977. This "engagement," which really wasn't one, took place on 19 August with German ships advancing on awaiting British ships. No actual fighting took place. Light duty patients were those well enough to be up and about and lending a hand on the wards but not sufficiently healed to be sent on to the convalescent camp, much less back to their fighting units. The days and dates for the entries between 23 August and 30 August are the one occasion when Clare's placing of two years in the same diary book (see Introduction) becomes confusing for herself and for the reader. Likely her rapid departure for England, anxiety about her brother, hospitalized in Leicester, and the rush to pack and then catch the boat unsettled her. The same day Clare sent a card home to her father. In it she was cheerier about Cyril's state: "Found Cyril looking fairly well." See Appendix 3, 26 August [1916]. Victor Lapp commented some weeks later on her visit to Leicester and presumed to interpret her feelings: "My I am glad you obtained your leave at such an opportune time and were able to visit your brother and make him happy. Poor boy. I am so sorry about his injury but how glad you must be that you still have him and it must be rather a relief to know that he will be safe." Victor Lapp to Clare Gass, 4 October 1916. Letter in possession of E. Anderson. Records of hospital intakes and statistics re wounds and ailments and deaths were carefully kept. As of 1917 they appeared monthly in the unit's official War Diary. The death rate recorded for July is a percentage of the admissions. Presumably these figures had just been released; it is 284

NOTES TO PAGES 143-53

Interior of Ward D (Pirie, No. 3 Canadian General Hospital)

the only time Clare records them. The McGill hospital prided itself on a low death rate, compared to the other hospitals in the Boulogne area. 31 Dr Ronald Playfair Campbell (1876-1916), a brilliant science and medical student at McGill, did post-graduate medical studies in Germany before being named medical superintendant of the MGH in 1904. Clare will have encountered him during her nursing training at the hospital between 1909 and 1912. 32 On 23 September German Zeppelins bombed London. 33 Trooper W.H. Blanch of the gth Lancers fulfilled his promise in February 1917. The first entry in Clare Gass' autograph album is his lengthy description of "Xmas Day 1916 in Ward D No 3 Canadian General Hospital" - "the happiest day I have ever spent away from home & that is saying a lot." The autograph album, containing drawings (one is reproduced on pages 176-7) and poems and sentiments from the soldiers is in the possession of Geraldine Brenton. 285

N O T E S TO P A G E S 158-62

NOTES TO DIARY 1 9 1 7

1

2 3

4

5

6 7 8

Brother Athelstan (1901-75) was too young to be in the army. Like many other recruits (including his older brother Blanchard) he advanced his age and passed the initial screening in Canada. Once in England, however, his father intervened and insisted he return home. According to his daughters Trudy Henderson of Halifax and Mary Brown of Oakville, Athel was so annoyed over parental interference with his wish to be a soldier that instead of returning to Nova Scotia he went west and worked in the northern interior of Alberta and British Columbia for about ten years before coming back to live in Shubenacadie. The Second World War gave him the chance to be a soldier. The grandfather mentioned here would have fought on the losing side in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. The 85th is brother Blanchard's unit, which was later commanded by the Major Ralston mentioned here. James Layton Ralston (1881-1948) is particularly known for his role as minister of National Defence in the government of Mackenzie King during the Second World War. The Reg Gass here is not another brother although Clare did have one of that name (1904-95), much too young for military service. This Reg Gass is a distant cousin, the son of a cousin of Clare's father. Letter from G. Brenton to S. Mann, 6 June 1999. The DI list marked a patient's condition as grave. Referred to as "the dangerous list" in Nursing Instructions, no. 51 (see Appendix 2), Clare's rendition may be either actual hospital usage ("dangerously ill") or an extension of the army classifications of men's fitness. Those categories, from best to worst, went from A to c with numerical gradations in between (hence the popular expression "AI" for being in top shape). This may be part of the deliberate German plan to retreat, destroying as they went, a plan that was put into full effect in mid-March. British troops occupied Baghdad on 11 March. The Turkish troops had left the city the day before. Trouble had been brewing in Russia since at least the end of February 1917, with growing unrest over the war and dire economic conditions. Troops expected to quell mobs instead joined them in armed protest. 286

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11

12

163-6

The rumours that Clare is recording probably precede the formation of the provisional government on 12 March. The Czar abdicated on 15 March; it took three days for this news to reach northern France. Clare's noting this arrival had me wondering whether it was Laurence ("Laurie") Gass's unit. But it is the 2718! Canadian Siege Battery (McGill), the first combatant unit granted the right to have the university's name in its title. (Fetherstonhaugh, McGill, 25-6 has a different number for the unit but his recording of its going to France in March 1917 fits with Clare's notice of its arrival.) Laurence Gass was with the i65th Siege Battery. Moreover, judging by a letter from Victor Lapp to Clare Gass, dated 4 October 1916, in which he asks for details of her "cousin's" unit, she knew of Laurie's being in France as of late September 1916 although she makes no mention of it in her diary. (Letter in the possession of E. Anderson). Laurence's official military record in the National Archives has him in France as of 19 September 1916. Presumably it is the McGill connection of the unit that causes Clare to note its arrival. Here rumour precedes fact: the Canadian attack on Vimy Ridge was planned for the early morning of 9 April, Easter Monday, 1917. What the rumour may be recording is the preliminary shelling that usually signalled an imminent attack. The length of time for her to learn of these deaths is surprising. Lt Laurence Gass died of wounds received on 8 April and Lance Corporal Blanchard Gass was killed in action on 9 April, but she learns of Laurie's death only on the 18th and Blanchard's on the 20th. The Montreal Star reported the death of L. Gass on 17 April 1917 and the McGill Daily published an obituary on 26 November 1918 (with a picture the following day) as part of an irregular series "How They Died." That obituary contains the words of condolence sent to Gass's mother by his acting commanding officer. Even allowing for the hyperbole of such messages, it is clear that Laurence Gass was an exceptional young man, both intellectually and in terms of character. Clare Gass kept an undated copy of the obituary in her scrapbook, now in the possession of Trudy Henderson of Halifax, and the photo from the Daily was in the living room of Gass's apartment in Montreal as late as the 19508. Elizabeth Anderson, who as Elizabeth Gass lived with her Aunt Clare between 1945 and 287

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1953, reported the presence of the photo (conversation with S. Mann, 24 April 1999) and explained how she learned of the "Laurie" connection. During her nursing training at the now-defunct Reddy Memorial Hospital in Montreal, Elizabeth was asked by the business administrator of the school about her family name. Was she by any chance related to a Laurence Gass who had died in his arms near Vimy in 1917? Not knowing the answer, Elizabeth pursued the question with her aunt. Clare Gass, momentarily starded, revealed the story of die youthful romance. Phone conversation with E. Anderson, 2 January 1999. Laurence Gass is buried in the Barlin Lt Laurence Gass Cemetery Extension, Pas-de-Calais, France (McGill Honour Roll 1914-18 (grave I.H.77) and Blanchard Gass is buried in [Montreal: McGill 1926], 41) the Canadian Cemetery No. 2, Neuville-SaintVaast, Pas-de-Calais, France (grave 1.6.38). Of all the deaths mentioned or hinted at in the Gass diary, these are the only two that could be identified and located via the Internet site of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. 13 One can only assume the hollowness in Clare's heart and soul during these blank days of the diary. My reading of her photographs (see Introduction), in the possession of nephew John Gass, suggests a woman with less spunk as of these dates. Her diary entries also shrink. 14 On 7 June the British, having literally undermined the Messines Ridge with a series of explosive-laden tunnels, blew the Germans from their positions on the Ridge. 15 Like a number of the other junior members of No. 3 CGH (e.g., Victor Lapp mentioned at 4 April 1916 and Henry Fry at 25 June 1917), John Valentine had tired of serving as ward orderly and wanted to see more action by joining an infantry battalion. "Leaving his stripes on our desk" refers to his voluntarily choosing a reduction in rank and pay from a non-commissioned officer to a private in the infantry. The stripe indicating his NCO rank might literally - as seems to be the case here 288

NOTES TO PAGES 170-8

16

17

18

19

20 21 22

be cut off his uniform and left behind. Thanks to Desmond Morton for this and many other clarifications of military lore. The "talk" she reports here will undoubtedly have included the death of their brother Blanchard at Vimy. Gerald had written to Clare a month earlier about the death: "when I say I expected what has happened you will think it funny, I could do nothing. But Clare I have seen many many fellows go & they have all given a warning of some kind. I may tell you lots of strange things someday." Letter from Gerald Gass to Clare Gass, 10 June 1917. Letter in the possession of Geraldine Brenton. Emphasis in the original. An estaminet was a rudimentary cafe set up by enterprising local folk, often in their own home, anywhere in the vicinity of a soldier clientele for cheap wine, simple meals, coffee, conversation, companionship. Although she gives no reason for choosing Scotland as a leave destination, Clare's family, on both the Gass and Miller sides, is of Scottish origin. Her friend Ruth Loggie had taken her leave in Scotland in the late spring of 1916. Clare was also well versed in Scottish history and romantic literature. The Kidnapped referred to is Robert Louis Stevenson's. In her photograph album she mentions her travelling companion: Sara MacNaughton. A Fifth Division of the Canadian Expeditionary Force was constituted in 1916, held in Britain for home defence and then, after considerable politico-military wrangling in the spring of 1918, broken up and used as reinforcements for the existing and seasoned ist, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Divisions of the Canadian Corps in France. Morton and Granatstein, Marching to Armageddon, 118, 196-7. The stripe, to be attached to Valentine's uniform, recognizes his promotion from private to lance corporal. The Italian Second Army collapsed as German and Austrian troops attacked Caporetto, 27 October 1917. The official War Diary of No. 3 CGH records her leaving on i November 1917: "Nursing Sisters C. Gass and E.J. Giffin are struck off strength on proceeding to No. 2 Canadian Casualty Clearing Station. Both have done excellent work since the mobilization of this Unit two and a half years ago." The Clearing Station to which she went was near a railway depot at Remy Siding. 289

Canadian stretcher bearers bringing in wounded through mud. Passchendaele, November 1917 (NA, PA 2367) 23 Passchendaele was the culminating point of the Third Battle of Ypres that extended from 31 July - 6 November. Canadian troops were assigned the task of taking Passchedaele across a bog of mud and did so at tremendous cost between 26 October and 14 November. 24 The fighting to take Cambrai began 20 November and if any victory could be recorded, that was the day. Thereafter, until early December when fighting ceased, any British advances were met by German retaliation. 25 Her mention of voting is the wartime beginning of women's suffrage in federal elections in Canada. Under the Military Voters Act of August 1917 she qualified to vote as a member of the armed forces; under the Wartime Elections Act of September 1917 she qualified to vote as a 290

N O T E TO P A G E 185

female relative (sister, mother, wife, daughter) of an overseas soldier. The purpose of both Acts was to garner support for the Borden government, which by October 1917 had attracted a sufficient number of former opposition members from the Liberal Party to create a coalition Union Government. The election in December gave the victory to Borden and to his policy of conscription - compulsory military service. With her first vote, therefore, Clare registered her support for a continuing supply of soldiers. Full women's suffrage for federal elections was accorded in 1918 and exercised in the first federal election after that in 1921. 26 The timing of her learning of these events is interesting. The new Bolshevik government in Russia had been talking of armistice since their taking power on 7 November 1917. The agreement with Germany to begin peace talks was on 27 November 1917. The short-lived military mutiny of Lavr Georgyevich Kornilov and Alexi Maximovich Kaledin

Poll for nursing sisters, No. i Canadian General Hospital, December 1917 (NA, PA 2279) 291

NOTES TO P A G E S 185-93

was on in September 1917. Kornilov, a high-ranking career soldier in the Russian army, had originally sided with the revolutionaries in the spring of 1917, but by the fall, when he was heading all the Russian forces, he despaired of the Kerensky government's pursuing the war effort. His revolt failed; briefly before his death in 1918 he mobilized an anti-Bolshevik White army. 27 The Halifax explosion occurred in the morning of 6 December 1917. Two ships collided in the harbour and the Mont Blanc, carrying explosives, blew up. The north end of Halifax was destroyed; 1600 people were killed, another 9000 injured. NOTES T O D I A R Y

1918

1 Except for her title 'The Cup of War," the passage is from the Bible (King James version), New Testament, Matthew 20, verse 22, with the phrase about baptism omitted. 2 This was her thirty-first birthday. 3 The German offensive was "long awaited" (Morton and Granatstein, Marching to Armageddon, 193) so presumably Clare knew of it. Or she might have penned the opening comment of this day's entry later. Only the spacing would suggest this latter possibility; the penmanship is the same. 4 Though the rumour was only partly accurate, it certainly was on time. That very day the British retreated from their line south of Peronne and the Casualty Clearing Station positions were captured. Both the wounded and the personnel of the cess had, however, been pulled back before the German advances. Macpherson, Medical Services, General History, in History of the Great War, 3: 210-213. 5 Clare wrote a poem entitled "Exodus from Remy" on this experience of the speedy evacuation of nursing personnel from a Casualty Clearing Station. In a letter from Matron-in-Chief to Nursing Sister Gass (dated 18 May 1921 and in the possession of Trudy Henderson), Margaret Macdonald asked for permission to publish the poem in the CAMC section of The Canadian Nurse. There is no record of a response to the request; the poem does not appear in that section of the journal; and the section's demise is announced in September 1922 with the immi292

NOTES TO PAGES 196-9

nent retirement of Matron Macdonald from the permanent military nursing staff of the Department of Militia and Defence. Between February 1924 and December 1926 the section reappeared sporadically. 6 The air raid occurred during the night of 19 May causing extensive damage at No i Canadian General Hospital, the hospital where Clare served during her first weeks in France in the late spring and early summer of 1915. Three Canadian nursing sisters lost their lives. 7 As this is the only outing beyond Boulogne recorded for the summer of 1918, it may have inspired Clare to write In the Poppy Fields Blow summer winds Across these fields of red, Blow all the ruin and the guilt of war away, And let we pray The Guardian Angel "Peace" To this dear sunny land Return to stay

8

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10

11

Signed LCG and dated 1918 France, the poem is recorded in a blankpage notebook entitled 'The Scribble-in Book," in the possession of Geraldine Brenton. Clare's full name was Lelia Clare Gass. The Llandovery CasZ/ewas torpedoed off the coast of Ireland on 27 June 1918 on a return voyage from Halifax. All fourteen sisters, along with most of the men, drowned. See the entry for Rena McLean, one of the victims, in Dictionary of Canadian Biography XIV: 723. Until this point the hospital was known as No. 3 Canadian General Hospital (McGill). It is the disappearance of the latter bracketed name to which she is referring. American soldiers, mentioned here for the first time, had been in Europe since the fall of 1917 and took part in their first major battle in late May 1918. Abner Kingman was a prominent Montreal businessman and, among other positions, director of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and part of the brokerage firm McKenzie and Kingman. Clare would 293

NOTES TO P A G E S 199-2O3

12 13

14

15

16

have encountered him in his capacity as a member of the Committee, then Board, of Management of the MGH; Annual Report of the Montreal General Hospital, 1909-17; McGillDaily, 8 December 1915. Sir William Peterson (1856-1921), a Scottish-born classicist, was principal of McGill University from 1895 to 1919. His knighthood was awarded in 1915. The eight-mile Canadian advance to which she is referring took place on 8 August. Morton and Granatstein (Marching to Armageddon, 200—3) provide full details of these thirty mile secret movements that took place between i and 8 August as well as the fighting itself on 8 and 9 August. The tunnellers she is referring to here belonged to the Canadian Railway Troop (see diary entry 30 July 1918). There was also a Canadian Tunnelling Troop, part of the engineering corps, who constructed and maintained tunnels under trenches or wherever they were needed. Transport duty meant doing nursing duty on a hospital ship or, after the war, on a troop ship from England to Canada, sometimes via Halifax and sometimes via Portland, Maine. The address in Ennismore Gardens was the London home of British M.P. Colonel Gretton, loaned to the Canadian Red Cross as of January 1918 as a rest home large enough to accommodate sixty nursing sisters; Moore, The Maple Leafs Red Cross, 98-100. Elsie is either a niece of Granty or a sister of Laurie Gass (information from Geraldine Brenton, in a letter to S. Mann, 6 June 1999.) If the niece, she became part of the family, visiting the apartment on Closse Street in Montreal that Clare shared with Granty from 1919 until Granty's death in 1948 and joining them for summer vacations among Clare's nieces and nephews on Martinique Beach in Nova Scotia. Clare Gass's post-war household arrangements facilitated both her and Granty's professional lives. Without male "breadwinners" and with ambition - on Clare's part at least - to explore the new field of social work, the shared household provided both women with economic, emotional, intellectual, and social sustenance. It seems that Granty the more reserved of the two - earned more than Clare and was a great cook. Information from nieces Mary Brown (conversation 16 Jan. 2000) and Geraldine Brenton (letter to S. Mann, 21 Jan. 2000). 294

NOTES TO PAGES 2O4-7

66 Ennismore Gardens, Red Cross rest home for Canadian nurses (NA, PA 5926) The Gass-Grant household may be one glimpse along the twentiethcentury path of economic and professional independence for middleclass women. That path, for Clare Gass, began with family, continued through boarding school, nursing training, war nursing, into co-operative housing arrangements. Later in the century there would be singlewomen home owners. I think the experience of war nursing was a significant step along that path. 17 CAMC Nursing Sister Vivian Tremaine nursed King George V, both in France and in England after he was injured during a troop inspection in France. 18 Canadian soldiers were involved in this advance, which took place between 26 August and 3 September. 19 The Segregation Camp at Rhyl in North Wales was a hospital for patients with venereal disease. When No. 3 CGH was turned into a venereal hospital in February 1919, the nursing sisters were sent to England; War Diary, No. 3 CGH, 27 February 1919. Presumably, therefore, the nurses at Rhyl dealt solely with influenza cases. 295

NOTES TO PAGES 2O8-31

20 The abdication took place on 9 November. Once Clare is in England, as of early September 1918, she gives far less diary space to war news. Her patients were no longer the recently wounded but rather the convalescing, at Buxton, the sick, at Rhyl. Indeed, there is a slight sense that she may have filled in the entries leading up to 11 November after the fact. 21 If these unattributed words were placed as an epitaph to her journal, they constitute a provocative commentary on four years of hands-on healing. Exactly the same reflection appears, word for word, in Nellie McClung's In Times Like These, 122. It actually sounds more like Clare than Nellie and it is tempting to think that someone may have sent Clare In Times Like These, published in 1915, and that she appreciated the humour, the politics, and the forthrightness of Canada's foremost feminist. However, McClung had a habit of including unattributed material in her work, so it may be that both drew on some other contemporary source. NOTE TO A P P E N D I X TWO

i Official instructions dated 15 June 1917 and published as a pamphlet, Ottawa: J. de Labroquerie Tache Printer to the King's Most Excellent Majesty, 1918. Source: Canadian War Museum. NOTE TO A P P E N D I X THREE

i The cards and letters quoted here are in the possession of Geraldine Brenton of Halifax, niece of Clare Gass, except for the letter of 7 July 1916 and its enclosure, and the card of 22 July 1916 in the possession of John Gass of Hilden, Nova Scotia. Niece Elizabeth Anderson of Windsor, Nova Scotia, has a card from the war years and a few letters from the 19505. These items constitute the only extant correspondence of Clare Gass. NOTE TO A P P E N D I X

FOUR

i This item, including the prose preface which must date from 1919, was hand-written and tucked loose into the Gass diary. Everything suggests it 296

NOTES TO P A G E S 233-49

was written by Clare Gass: the writing, the sentiment, her location at a Casualty Clearing Station in 1917, and even the marginal numbering of the order of the stanzas that might suggest that stanza 4 was written after the others (or, more simply, that in transcribing it from what would surely have been rougher notes, she inadvertantly misplaced it). Besides her tribute to the "men," the poem is striking in showing the tenacity of her ideals in the face of the conditions of war. NOTE TO A P P E N D I X F I V E

i The list is taken from Fetherstonhaugh, No. 3, Appendix E, 258—61. He also has a lengthy list of subsequent reinforcements to the unit, which I have not reproduced (Appendix F, 262—9). I have been able to determine the nursing school Royal Victoria Hospital (RVH) or Montreal General Hospital (MGH) - and date of graduation and have added that information to the names of the nursing sisters. NOTE TO A P P E N D I X SIX

i The original article is in the papers of Matron-in-chief Margaret Macdonald at the National Archives as part of her uncompleted project for a history of the Canadian Nursing Services. This version, with Matron MacLatchy's name misspelled as McLatchey, appeared in the "C.A.M.C. Nursing Service Department" of The Canadian Nurse 18, no. 7 (July 1922): 414—18. I have corrected the spelling, using that of her autograph in a souvenir album belonging to Nursing Sister Marguerite Carr-Harris. Thanks to Professor Meryn Stuart of the University of Ottawa for showing me this album. NOTE TO A P P E N D I X

i Chapter 14 of Clint, Our Bit, 110-19.

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Canadian Nursing Sisters of World War I, Oral History Programme, Transcripts of Interviews Alice Isaacson Papers Nursing Sisters' Association of Canada Papers C A N A D I A N WAR M U S E U M , A R C H I V E S AND LIBRARY, OTTAWA K I N G ' S - E D G E H I L L SCHOOL, W I N D S O R , NOVA SCOTIA

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Abbot, Maude. "Lectures on the History of Nursing." The Canadian Nurse 19, no. 3 (March 1923): 147-51 Adami, J. George. War Story of the Canadian Army Medical Corps. Toronto: Musson 1918 Allard, Genevieve. "Les infirmieres militaires canadiennes pendant la premiere guerre mondiale." MA thesis (History), Universite Laval 1996 - "Des 'anges Wanes' sur le front: le travail de soignante des infirmieres canadiennes au cours de la premiere guerre mondiale." Paper presented to the annual meeting of the Institut d'histoire de 1'Amerique frangaise, Quebec, 17 October 1998 Arnold, Gertrude. Sister Anne! Sister Anne! Toronto: McClelland and Stewart

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iSjo-igjo. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press 2000 Bongard, Ella Mae. Edited by Eric Scott. Nobody Ever Wins a War: World War I Diaries of Ella Mae Bongard. Ottawa: Janeric Enterprises 1997 Brooks, Alan A. "The Provincials by Albert J. Kennedy." Acadiensis 4, no. 2 (Spring 1975): 85-101 Bruce, Constance. Humour in Tragedy. Hospital Life Behind Three Fronts. London: Skeffington & Son n.d. [1918?] Bunkers, Suzanne, and Huff, Cynthia, eds. Inscribing the Daily: Critical Essays on Women's Diaries. Amherst: University of Massachussetts Press 1996 Buss, Helen. "'The Dear Domestic Circle': Frameworks for the Literary Study of Women's Personal Narratives in Archival Collections." Studies in Canadian Literature 14, no. i (1989): 1-17 -Mapping Our Selves: Canadian Women's Autobiography in English. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press 1993 Cameron, Kenneth. History of No. i Canadian General Hospital CEF. Sackville: Tribune 1938 Cameron-Smith, J. "The Preparation of Nurses for Military Work." The Canadian Nurse 13 no. 9 (Sept. 1917): 556-8 Cline, Cheryl. Women's Diaries, Journals and Letters: an Annotated Bibliography. New York: Garland Publishing 1989 Clint, Mabel. Our Bit. Memories of War Service by a Canadian Nursing Sister. Montreal: Alumnae Association of the Royal Victoria Hospital 1934 Conrad, Margaret, Laidlaw, Toni, and Smyth, Donna, eds. No Place Like Home. Diaries and Letters of Nova Scotia Women ijji—iqjS. Halifax: Formac Publishing 1988 Craufurd, W.D., and Manton, E. and A. Peeps into Picardy. London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent 1914 Crerar, Duff. Padres in No Man's Land: Canadian Chaplains and the Great War. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press 1995 Crofton, Eileen. The Women ofRoyaumont: A Scottish Women's Hospital on the Western Front. East Linton: Tuckwell Press 1997 Dictionary of Canadian Biography 14 (1911-20). Toronto: University of Toronto Press 1998 Didier, Beatrice. Le journal intime. Paris: Presses universitaires de France 1976 Duncan, Robert. 'John McCrae's War in Flanders Fields." Documentary

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1947 -ed. and comp. No. 3 Canadian General Hospital (McGill) 1914—1919. Montreal: Gazette Printing Company 1928 Gibbon, John. Three Centuries of Canadian Nursing. Toronto: Macmillan 1947 Grant, Amy Gordon, ed. Letters from Armageddon: A collection made during the World War. Boston: Houghton Mifflin 1930 Gullace, Nicoletta. "Sexual Violence and Family Honor: British Propaganda and International Law during the First World War." American Historical Review 102 (June 1997): 714-47 Gunn, Jean. "The Services of Canadian Nurses and Voluntary Aids During the War." The Canadian Nurse 15 no. 9 (Sept. 1919): 1975-9 Haldane, Elizabeth. The British Nurse in Peace and War. London: J. Murray 1923 Haste, Gate. Keep the Home Fires Burning: Propaganda in the First World War. London: A. Lane 1977 Haycock, Ronald G. Sam Hughes. The Public Career of a Controversial Canadian 1885—1916. Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press 1986 Higgert, Margaret R., Jenson, Jean, Michel, Sonya, and Weitz, Margaret C., eds. Behind the Lines: Gender and the Two World Wars. New Haven and London: Yale University Press 1987 Hoffman, Leonore, and Culley, Margo. Women's Personal Narratives: Essays in Criticism and Pedagogy. New York: Modern Language Society of America 1985 Holger, H.Herwig, and Heyman, Neil M. Biographical Dictionary of World War I. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press 1982 Kent, Susan Kingsley. Making Peace: The Reconstruction of Gender in Interwar Britain. Princeton: Princeton University Press 1993 Leed, Eric. No Man's Land. Combat and Identity in World War I. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1979 Lensink, Judy. "Expanding the Boundaries of Criticism: The Diary as Female Autobiography." Women's Studies 14 (1987): 39-53 MacDermot, Hugh Ernest. History of the School for Nurses of the Montreal General Hospital. Montreal: Alumnae Association 1940

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Mackenzie, JJ. No. 4 Canadian General Hospital. Toronto: Macmillan 1933 Macphail, Andrew. Official History of the Canadian Forces in the Great War, 1914—1919: Medical Services. Ottawa: King's Printer 1925 Macpherson, William Grant. History of the Great War. Medical Services General History. Vol 3. London: His Majesty's Stationery Office 1924 Mann, Susan. "Domesticated Travel: Canadian Women 'Across the Pond.'" Unpublished paper presented at McGill Centre for Teaching and Research on Women, 22 October 1997 McClung, Nellie. In Times Like These. [New York: Appleton 1915] Toronto: University of Toronto Press 1972 McPherson, Kathryn. Bedside Matters. The Transformation of Canadian Nursing, 1900—7990. Toronto: Oxford University Press 1996 Moore, Mary Macleod. The Maple Leaf's Red Cross. The War Story of the Canadian Red Cross Overseas. London: Skeffington & Son 1919 Morton, Desmond. When Your Number's Up: the Canadian Soldier in the First World War. Toronto: Random House 1993 -and Jack Granatstein. Marching to Armageddon. Canadians and the Great War 1914—1919. Toronto: Lester & Orpen Dennys 1989 Munroe, Marjorie Dobie. The Training School for Nurses. Royal Victoria Hospital 1894—1943. Montreal: Royal Victoria Hospital 1943 Newell, M. Leslie. '"Led by the Spirit of Humanity': Canadian Military Nursing 1914-1929." MSC thesis (Nursing), University of Ottawa 1996 Nicholson, Gerald. Canada's Nursing Sisters. Toronto: Samuel Stevens, Hakkert 1975 Ouditt, Sharon. Fighting Forces, Writing Women. London: Routledge 1994 Pirie, A.H., ed. No. 3 Canadian General Hospital (McGill) in France 1915, ic}16, 1917. Middlesbrough, England: Hood and Company 1918 Poplin, Irene S. "Nursing Uniforms: Romantic Idea, Functional Attire, or Instrument of Social Change?" Nursing History Review 2 (1994): 153-67 Scott, Frederick George. The Great War as I Saw It. Toronto: Goodchild 1922 —In the Battle Silences. Poems written at the Front. London: Constable 1916 Stuart, Meryn. "War and Peace: Professional Identities and Nurses' Training 1914-1930," in Challenging Professions, ed. Elizabeth Smyth et al. Toronto: University of Toronto Press 1999 Summers, Anne. Angels and Citizens. British Women as Military Nurses 1854—1915. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul 1988 303

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Vance, Jonathan F. Death So Noble: Memory, Meaning, and the First World War. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press 1997 Wilkinson, Maude. "Four Score and Ten." The Canadian Nurse 73, nos. 10, 11, 12 (October, November, December 1977): 26-9; 14-22; 16-23 Wilson, Barbara, ed. Ontario and the First World War. Toronto: Champlain Society 1977 Wilson-Simmie, Katharine M. Lights Out. A Canadian Nursing Sister's Tale. Belleville: Mika Publishing Company 1981 Wylie, Betty Jane. Reading Between the Lines. The Diaries of Women. Toronto: Key Porter Books 1995

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M C G I L L - Q U E E N ' S ASSOCIATED M E D I C A L SERVICES ( H A N N A H INSTITUTE) Studies in the History of Medicine, Health, and Society Series Editors: S.O. Freedman and J.T.H. Connor Volumes in this series have financial support from Associated Medical Services, Inc., through the Hannah Institute for the History of Medicine Program. 1 Home Medicine The Newfoundland Experience John K. Crellin 2 A Long Way From Home The Tuberculosis Epidemic among the Inuit Pat Sandiford Grygier 3 Labrador Odyssey The Journal and Photographs of Eliot Curwen on the Second Voyage of Wilfred Grenfell, 1893 Edited by Ronald Rompkey 4 Architecture in the Family Way Doctors, Houses, and Women, 1870-1900 Annmarie Adams 5 Local Hospitals in Ancien Regime France Rationalization, Resistance, Renewal, 1530—1789 Daniel Hickey 6 Foisted upon the Government? State Responsibilities, Family Obligations, and the Care of the Dependant Aged in Nineteenth-Century Ontario Edgar-Andre Montigny

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7 A \bung Man's Benefit The Independent Order of Odd Fellows and Sickness Insurance in the United States and Canada, 1860-1929 George Emery and J.C. Herbert Emery 8 The Weariness, the Fever, and the Fret The Campaign against Tuberculosis in Canada, 1900—1950 Katherine McCuaig 9 The War Diary of Clare Gass, 1916—1918 Edited by Susan Mann

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